


An Unorthodox Approach

by AnchoredTether



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Cat/Human Hybrids, Crack Treated Seriously, Curses, Dragons, F/M, Fairy Tale Curses, Fairy Tale Elements, Fluff and Crack, Humor, Keith & Lance (Voltron) Friendship, Pidge is literally a Disney Princess that breaks all the stereotypes, Princess Pidge | Katie Holt, Shifter Lance, Yeah you heard me right, also, also kind of a Pikelavar AU, and Lance is an oblivious dork as usual, because shifters, because you know me I gotta have it, fun times for Pidge, non-sexual nudity, this is such crack I am so sorry I couldn't pass it up, this is uhhh.... kind of a Shrek AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:06:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22351549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnchoredTether/pseuds/AnchoredTether
Summary: Lance has a frustrating problem and Lord Morvak has offered him an unusual solution out of the very mess he imposed upon him. His once peaceful swamp of exile is now crawling with obnoxious fantasy misfits, he has a giant wolf that won't leave but also won't bother conversing with him even though it can talk, and there's a cult that's out for his head on a pike.But slaying a dragon and freeing a princess trapped in a castle should be an easy fix, right?
Relationships: Lance/Pidge | Katie Holt
Comments: 66
Kudos: 62
Collections: Fantastic Plance and Where to Find Them





	1. Dire Wolves and Dire Situations

Somebody once told him that for every good action there was always a motive behind it.

Humans were driven by pride and greed and could not be trusted. They feared the unknown and cast out those who were different. They grossly exaggerated facts into falsehood and turned men into monsters. But ever since he was a child, Lance held a great interest in humankind. He liked to observe them and even desired to live among them despite the concerns of his family and the protest of his clan. But his curiosity was too great for his own good.

One too many close encounters endangered his people when humans came to the village with the intent to kill. What seemed to be a friendly interaction with a human girl he befriended on the outskirts of the town turned out to be nothing more than a ploy. When adults learned about the girl's interactions with Lance they used him to track down his home, striking the ailurans when they least expected it. It wasn't until Lance saw his home drenched in blood and littered with corpses did he realize the cruelty of humankind. As punishment for his reckless actions that cost lives on both sides of the fight, the clan leaders exiled him from the village and his people moved to a new, safe location in which he would never know.

He was only eleven years old and barely knew how to shift.

In his circumstances, it was practically a death sentence.

Ailurans weren't the only creatures in the woods that humans feared, and Lance was well aware of how many predators stood higher in the food chain. Bigger, scarier, and stronger beasts ruled the wilds. He was too humane to survive in the wild on his own and he was too animalistic to be welcomed into the safety of the cities. He no longer had a family or clan to protect him and the only thing he could rely upon was his feline instincts.

He managed to get by with only a handful of near-death encounters, finding peace in a place close enough to the city to avoid the biggest creatures but far enough to save his own skin from harmful humans. Apparently monsters and humans alike detested swamps as much as he did. It was hot and muggy and infested with bugs, and although he pictured his home on a waterfront far more differently, it kept him safe all these years and for that he was grateful. He would gladly choose the unpleasantness of the swamp any day if it meant avoiding the constant fight for his life. 

He learned a lot on his own, adapting and improvising in order to survive. He became a master thief, stealing necessities from travelers on the main roads in the middle of the night. On nights where he felt the most lonely, he risked sneaking into the city, favoring rooftops and dark alleys to people watch. It helped him to imagine his family in the faces of happy people mingling in taverns. It left a hole in his chest, aching for what he was missing, but it also reminded him of how badly he wanted to laugh with his siblings around the warmth of a fire again. He returned to his swamp with heavily mixed feelings but ignited with the resolve to return to his family.

Lance discovered the swamp he now called home when he was fourteen after running from a dire wolf that had heavily injured his side. He thought for sure the wolf would scent him out or he would bleed out and die, but the musk of the swamp must have covered his trail and despite most of the water being muddy, he still had clean sources to nurse his wound. It was then he decided this would be his new home until he could better control his shifting and grow strong enough to seek out the woods and find his family.

Several years later, it was understandable that a dire wolf set him on edge when it limped into his swamp, panting and dripping blood.

The creature collapsed on its side at the edge of the water and Lance crouched for a long time in the safety of his house as he peered from the bottom of the windowsill. The beast's chest slowly rose and fell and he had a feeling it wouldn't leave anytime soon. He couldn't hide inside forever - he had no food prepared for dinner - and he felt weird ignoring it and leaving it out there to die. It wasn't until his stomach started growling obnoxiously did he let out a long sigh and opened the door outside.

Lance slowly and stealthily approached the wolf, carefully watching for any body language that expressed detection. But the wolf was still, save for its heavy breathing. If it was hostile it certainly didn't have the strength to put up any kind of a fight. He squatted in front of the creature for a solid minute before it finally opened its eye and made contact.

He had seen many dire wolves, most of them much closer than he would have liked, but he had never seen one with purple irises. His triangular ears flicked curiously as he stared at the monster's eye far longer than what was deemed polite.

"Hey..." he said softly, moving a hand slowly towards the wolf to show he meant no harm. "It's going to be okay." The wolf couldn't move but its eye watched the movement of his hand as he gently rubbed the fur along its neck, its eye closing in content or possibly defeat.

"I'm sorry..." he said as if he were somehow personally responsible for the beast's wounds. Empathy was considered a flaw among ailurans. _It will only get you killed_ , the elders would say. _It's a human trait and it's what makes their kind weak. We cannot be like them, we look out for our own. That is the survival of the fittest._

But Lance was different.

He couldn't help but care.

He took the wolf into his home and tended to its wounds, sharing his own food with the beast. It mostly slept for the first few days but eventually started moving around as it healed. One night when Lance was working on cooking a giant bass in the fire, he heard the wolf speak.

"Thank you."

Lance stared at the canine for a long pause of silence, his expression hard, his tail frozen from its previous undulation. His ears flattened as he straightened up, holding the fire poker upright as he waited for some sign to confirm he wasn't going insane. The wolf blinked slowly, its purple hues unwavering.

After a moment he slowly turned away to return his attention to making dinner but whipped a quick glance to the wolf as if he'd catch him in the act. Doing _what_ he did not know, but he knew something was suspicious. Perhaps he _was_ imagining things, and his subconscious was hearing what he figured the wolf would say if it could talk. But wolves couldn't talk. _Animals_ couldn't talk. Even shifters could not talk in their feral forms so there was no way this wolf just spoke to him.

Lance cut up the fish and gave a portion to the wolf on a plate, sliding it across the table to where it sat in a chair. He began digging into his own serving when he heard the voice again but this time he witnessed the wolf's black jaws moving along with the words.

"I'm surprised at how good this is."

Lance yelped, jumping out of his chair and holding out a fork threateningly. He didn't even have time to contemplate whether the wolf's statement was a subtle insult to his cooking abilities. "Y-you spoke!"

"Yeah?" The wolf gave him a flat expression. "I spoke earlier."

"I-I thought I was imagining things!!"

"Well congrats, you're not," it replied flatly.

"What are you?! Some demon possessing a wolf? An apparition? A deity?!" His voice cracked and raised an octave. "Oh gods _please don't kill me-"_

"Calm down," it snarled, finishing a mouthful of meat before continuing. "I'm just cursed."

Lance raised an eyebrow. "Cursed to talk?"

"Cursed to be a _wolf_ , idiot," he spat.

"Oh..." He slowly lowered his arm, his muscles relaxing. "So you're normally... _not_ a wolf..."

"I'm human. My name is Keith."

He couldn't help the defensive instinct as his muscles stiffened again. He couldn't decide if Keith chose not to attack him because he was actually a human and not a wild wolf, or if his canine nature kept his aggressive human traits in check. Both dire wolves and humans were his enemies in the past, and here stood a man that was somehow both. "The name's Lance... why didn't you attack me?"

Keith tilted his head to the side. "Why would I?"

"Aren't you scared of me?"

The wolf-not-wolf shook his head from side to side.

"Really?"

"Really really."

Lance frowned and let out a pensive hum. As far as he knew humans were terrified of ailurans since they could transform into monstrous felines at will. Humans compared them to werewolves and vampires and claimed the only reason they had a form of a more human-like appearance was so they could easily seek out their prey undetected, to give a sense of false security. He heard how humans spoke of his kind in scary stories and how they tore apart human innards for dessert and committed unspeakable crimes. He may have liked humans when he was younger but that was when he was blissfully ignorant. He knew now that they were monsters in their own right.

"Why not?"

"Maybe because you weren't the one who attacked me? And you also felt like saving me when you didn't have to."

It was a decent excuse but Lance still had his suspicions with the wolf. "Who _did_ attack you? Those didn't look like claw marks..."

"Humans. Apparently there's a reward out for any 'fairy-tale creatures' by the Lord of this county."

" _'Fairy-tale_ creatures'?" Both of his eyebrows rose and his ears twitched. "What does that even _entail?"_

"Probably anything that isn't human or strictly a wild animal."

Lance made a strange hissing sound of protest. "Great. That means I'll probably have company soon. I'm pretty accustomed to humans coming after me with pitchforks and torches but they've always wanted me dead, not alive." It was an easy task to fight them off with his superhuman strength (more a nuisance than anything else), and he oftentimes had fun scaring them since his first approaches of talking reason never quite worked out. He never killed anyone but enjoyed giving them something to remember him by.

The two of them finished the rest of their meal in silence, Keith chewing faster and leaving the table to rest by the fire on the make-shift bed Lance had made him. Once he was settled, Lance asked him a question as he slowly finished off the rest of his food.

"So how'd you get cursed?"

"It's a long story," he answered dismissively.

"I've got time."

Keith shifted uncomfortably on the blankets, an annoyed growl softly sounding at the back of his throat. No answer came and the wolf's eyes were closed, causing Lance to glare icy daggers at his large dark figure in response.

"That's fine. Keep to yourself," he grumbled, clearing his plate and taking both his and Keith's over to the kitchen counter. It was just his luck to make a (sort of) friend with a wolf and discover it could _talk_ only to have it prefer silence instead. He reckoned Keith would leave in a few days once his leg was healed so perhaps it was better this way. The last thing he needed was to make a friend in his lonely life only to quickly lose them.

When Lance slipped into his bed and pulled the covers up to his chin, he shook off his feelings of despair. _Maybe Keith is slow to open up..._ he thought as he stared at the stars visible through his bedroom window. _Being cursed has got to be traumatic..._

He decided he would try to reach out and be Keith's friend and help him break his curse.

And he would start in the morning by making waffles. 


	2. Reflecting Upon Mirrors

Lord Morvok was a busy man, tirelessly working to perfect his kingdom. He had to dispose of every last fairy tale creature or there would never be peace among the populace. Many of the creatures wielded magic or were frighteningly powerful and he couldn't risk an uprising. People were terrified of them and it was only a matter of time before these upsetting instances of fairy tale creatures attacking innocent civilians started to become the norm. What would happen then? He would lose his position, possibly even his life! 

After interrogating countless fairy tale creatures, all his efforts lead to dead ends. A talking gingerbread man happened to slip information that helped his soldiers find a witch on the edge of town and he was hoping the chatty cookie would offer him some more insight.

"Fine. I'll tell you," the gingerbread man said bitterly after Morvok threatened to take his gumdrop buttons. "Do you know…. The Muffin Man?"

"The Muffin Man?!" 

"The Muffin Man," he affirmed.

"Yes, I believe I know the Muffin Man…" Morvok mused as he rubbed his stubbled chin, bringing the tall, dark, beefy and handsome man to his memory. "Who lives on Drury Lane?"

"Well, she's… _married_ to… the Muffin Man…" 

"The _Muffin_ Man??"

"THE M-MUFFIN MAN!!!" the cookie cracked with absolute fear.

_"She's married to the Muffin Man…"_

A soldier broke his thoughts as the door busted open. "Sir! We've found it!"

"Oh, well bring it in!" he ordered with a flourish of his hand, the excitement showing in his face as a few more guards came in carrying something large and carefully wrapped in cloth. They propped it up upon the wall and pulled the cloth loose to reveal an ornate oval mirror, its edges carved in elegant gold. Smoke swirled in the endless void of the mirror's surface until the face of an older man with ginger hair and a magnificent mustache appeared.

"Magic Mirror…" Morvok said in awe as his soldiers watched in great interest.

"Don't tell him anything!!" the gingerbread man pleaded to the mirror, waving its arms about. A guard placed a glass bowl upside down on top of it, eliciting a muffled whimper of defeat from the enchanted cookie.

"Mirror mirror on the wall, is this not the most perfect kingdom of them all?" Morvok asked as he gracefully stepped closer to converse with the man in the mirror.

The man chuckled. "Ah well you see, you're not… _technically_ a king." 

"Uh, Glavorius?" He turned to the tallest soldier who held up a small mirror and punched it, pieces of the shattered surface clattering to the floor. Morvok turned back to the magic mirror with a smug expression. "You were saying?"

The ginger's eyes widened slightly. "W-what I meant to say, _your excellence,"_ he added on for good measure, "is you're not technically a king _yet!!_ But you certainly can become one! All you need to do is find yourself a lovely princess and ask her hand in marriage. If she says yes, you're officially a king."

Morvok scoffed. "How am I supposed to _find_ a princess? It's not like they're just waltzing around in the woods."

The man in the mirror frowned. "Hmm. I thought that's what most of them did in their spare time…" he mumbled, clearing his throat and addressing the Lord more clearly. "Well you are in luck my good sir! I have some eligible bachelorettes! All within a reasonable distance from your… ehm... soon-to-be kingdom."

"Go on…"

The mirror offered a variety of choices, all beautiful women with strange quirks and amusing hobbies, but it wasn't until the mirror shared the last bachelorette did Morvok take an interest. Not only was she an esteemed intellectual, but she was a radiant beauty with long strawberry blonde hair and unusual honeyed eyes. Although she was locked away in a tower guarded by a dragon, Morvok saw this as a challenge and a way to truly profess his feelings for her by rescuing the damsel in distress. She would be eternally in his debt and would have to accept his hand in marriage. He could not lose.

"I choose... Princess Katherine."

* * *

Pidge had a lot of free time to sit around and think.

She hated it.

Ever since she was a child she was told that her prince charming would come to rescue her. He would sweep her off her feet and break her curse with true love's kiss. It was a comfort to her when she was younger but now that she was an adult she was wondering what was taking him so long. What if he tragically died and she would remain trapped and cursed in this tower forever?

Despite making friends with the dragon that guarded her, Allura was magically bound to keep her there until she was rescued. Pidge herself couldn't pass the bridge to her freedom - there was a magical barrier that prevented her from doing so (she had tried many times in vain). Allura told her again and again how she would simply let her go if she could, but even she was not free until Pidge was rescued. At least Allura had a humanoid form so they could converse. It would have been far lonlier if she had no one to talk to. The castle also had a library (although most of the books were completely ruined) so she had material to read, but otherwise Pidge had a lot of time with nothing to do. At one point she tried to clean and restore the ruined castle but she quickly got bored with such a lengthy task. There was only so much she could do in its current state.

She dreamed of fairy tales, of a life where she could be romantically swept away into an adventure with a knight in shining armor to guide and protect her. She wanted nothing more than to be content with her heroic rescuer and be reunited with her family in a peaceful kingdom, but she knew it was all an ideal she would never realize. Her childhood was filled with stories of princesses in towers or other dire situations and their true love coming to save them, but she could never imagine that she would end up in such a situation with no hope of a happily ever after.

On top of all her many frustrations, she had to live a cursed life. There were days when she wondered if she would ever feel at peace with herself but every night and every morning she was reminded how she lived a dual life, trapped in a place where no one would succeed in saving her. She couldn't save herself. All she could do was wait as her hope crumbled away with each passing year. 

As a child she heard all the stories of ailurans. They were monsters disguised as humanoids, their gigantic feline forms reeking of bloodlust and waiting to tear human flesh apart. They were bigger and scarier than werewolves, more deadly than vampires. They were always villains in the fairy tales - the ones the heroes had to slay in order to save the princess.

And here she was, cursed to be an ailuran once the sun set.

By day she was the heroine, by night she was the monster.

It was frustrating that some feline ears and a tail were enough to make herself disgusted, but she didn't always take the humanoid ailuran form once twilight fell. She knew the terror of their feral forms and it only convinced her that as she was, she could never be loved. A kiss couldn't possibly break her curse. She spent a lot of time in front of the mirror wondering how anyone could see her for who she truly was beneath the mask of her magical affliction. Despite her urge to break the mirror, she kept it perfectly intact. She wanted to clearly see the reality she lived in, she wanted to stare down the monster she became when night reigned. 

Even if by some miracle someone came to save her and succeeded, what were the odds of it being daytime and receiving true love's kiss before they could see her cursed form? Her prince charming would slaughter her before she could get a chance to even explain. That was her fairy tale ending, it was her reality.

No one would succeed in saving her.

And no one could possibly learn to love her. 


	3. Dealing Something Dangerous

Lance wasn't going to make waffles.

When he awoke, his ear twitched to a myriad of annoying sounds and a groan escaped his lips, wishing he could go back to sleep. When the noises didn't disappear and the morning sunlight was too bright to ignore, he reluctantly sat up only to let out a high pitched scream.

His house and his swamp were filled with fairy tale creatures.

 _"KEITH???"_ he screeched as he barreled past fairies and gnomes and… was that a unicorn in his study? The main living room where Keith slept by the fire was just as packed with unwelcome guests. He gave the wolf a questioning look of desperation.

"What don't look at me _I_ didn't invite them."

"Where did you all come from then?? And what are you doing in _my house?!"_ he asked as he looked around at the mix of blank stares and cowering expressions.

"Lord Morvok exiled us here," a tall witch spoke from the corner.

"Lord Morvok?" He remembered now how Keith mentioned that the lord of the county had a reward for fairy tale creatures and this must have been part of the noble's plan. "Well that's fitting, because I'm exiled too. _But that doesn't mean you can stay!!"_

A rat at the foot of the dining table let out a shrill squeak, covering its eyes with its paws. "PLEASE DON'T EAT US!!"

Lance raised both of his eyebrows, surprised at the talking rodent's reaction. But he realized if humans had their reasons to be scared of being eaten by his kind, a rat would have even more reason to be terrified. "I-I'm not gonna-" He let out a sigh, facepalming as he tried to think of a solution. "Look, I'm sure you don't want to be in my nasty swamp as much as I don't want you all in my nasty swamp - as much as _I_ don't want to be in my _own_ nasty swamp but I don't have a choice in the matter - so can any of you tell me how to get to this Morvok guy so I can set things straight?"

There was a long silence before a small lizard-sized dragon repeated the plea, _"PLEEEASE_ DON'T EAT US!!"

"I already- UGH I'M _NOT_ GOING TO EAT ANY OF YOU! OKAY?! Now where's this Lord I need to speak to?"

Keith stuck his head out awkwardly, slowly raising one of his front paws like he was raising a hand in class. "I know how to get to Lord Morvok."

Lance let out a sharp exhale between clenched teeth. "Does anybody ELSE know how to get to Lord Morvok? Anyone? Anyone at all?"

"I just said I-"

"I know, I know." Lance rolled his eyes before letting out another sigh of defeat. "Alright. Everyone stay put and don't break anything!! I'm going to get this all sorted out so you can go back to wherever you all came from."

There was a short pause of silence before all the creatures broke out into applause and cheers (and some wolves howling in approval). Lance was slightly taken aback from their pleasure but found himself happy to get away from the overflowing vicinity. His once quiet swamp was teeming with tents filled with creatures of all shapes and sizes and he had to wonder if they would all get along and if there'd be any casualties when he got back. There was no way he could force them all to leave but he certainly didn't want them to stay either. Whatever this Lord Morvok had done, Lance would set right.

He knew all too well the pain of being exiled from your home.

* * *

"Aren't you going to throw on some kind of disguise or something?" Keith asked as they slowly made their way towards the kingdom. Keith could only move so fast since his leg was still healing, but Lance didn't mind the slower pace.

"A disguise?"

"You know, to cover your ears and tail? Aren't they going to lynch you as soon as you set foot within the city walls?"

He shrugged. "I doubt I'll get more than some rash guards attempting to capture me. There's not much point in hiding what I am if I want to have a straight-forward discussion with this lord."

Keith made a small grunt. "I suppose."

"What do you know of Lord Morvok? Anything useful?"

"He's _short._ And a narcissistic idiot. Other than that I don't know much. I've only passed through Duloc before."

"Was that when you were human?"

"…Yeah."

They remained quiet for most of the journey there, arriving at the kingdom gates well before sunset. There was only one guard they had to pass who ran in fear, whether at the sight of Lance or Keith or both it was uncertain, but otherwise the capital was empty.

"Sounds like there's some event going on?" Lance observed, his ears swiveling towards the sound of a crowd cheering in the distance.

"This may benefit us," Keith commented, leading the way towards the noise.

When they reached the amphitheater they saw it was packed with the people of Duloc, a few men in armor standing around at the bottom of the arena. Up high at the front of the arena stood a man Lance assumed was Lord Morvok, dressed in elegant purple robes and surrounded by guards. He was giving some sort of speech or announcement, claiming it was time for the tournament to begin.

"Well, I guess we get an audience with the Lord. Literally," Lance snorted, walking on in like he wasn't about to waltz into his own slaughterhouse. Keith whispered his protests, growling when the ailuran didn’t listen and reluctantly following after him.

Lance and Keith's presence quickly became known as they stepped out into the evening sunlight, the crowd breaking into gasps and worried murmurs. As soon as Lord Morvok spotted them his face turned to absolute disgust.

"What _is_ that hideous creature?!"

"What?" Lance looked over his shoulder at Keith and returned his attention to Morvok. "He's just a wolf."

"Alright new plan, gentlemen! The one who kills the ailuran, will be named champion! Now get after him!"

"Oh, this will be fun," Lance said dryly as a dozen men inched closer with their spears and swords. The crowd was going wild, people screaming like they would at a jousting match, all on the edge of their seats as they waited in anticipation to watch him bleed.

Ailurans were faster and stronger than even the most athletic of humankind. Lance had no problems dodging attacks and hitting his oppressors in the right spots to disarm them and knock them unconscious. In his experience fighting enemies, these men were nothing of a threat. They were a bunch of overconfident brawns with no skill who came after him with one sloppy move after the next. The competition was over in a few minutes, all of the contestants lying on the ground while Keith stood a ways back, not even participating in the fight.

The crowd was silent after Lance's unparalleled victory, Morvok staring in shock at how quickly it unfolded. He held up an arm and several archers in the upper balconies drew arrows nocked at the ready, aimed at Lance from all possible angles. His ears flattened and his tail moved side to side in agitation as he glared up at the short man looking down upon him.

"Why have you come here, cat?"

Lance groaned, raising his voice so the lord could hear him. "I'm here for a complaint. I came here to reclaim my swamp!"

 _"Your_ swamp?"

"Yes! My swamp! Where _you_ exiled all those fairy tale creatures! My land isn't a dump and if it was you definitely owe me a lot of money for that."

Morvok chuckled, stroking his chin in thought for a moment as he considered his response. "Alright beast, I'll make you a deal. I will relocate all the fairy tale creatures from your swamp if you complete a quest for me."

His ears perked up, a brow raised up in disbelief. "A _quest?_ So I have to do something for you to fix the mess that _you_ made. How is _that_ fair compensation?"

"I _could_ kill you right now…" He gestured to the archers surrounding him. "So I'd say it's a fair trade."

Lance glared at him a moment longer, a growl rising up in the back of his throat. He should have known a human would not treat him equally but he was still disappointed. It seemed the only way out of this mess was to calmly comply with the man's backward request. He dreaded what the quest would entail and had a feeling it could only be something extremely tedious if he wanted an ailuran to do it.

"What's the quest?"

"I need you to rescue Princess Katherine and bring her back to Duloc to be my bride."

Now both of his eyebrows rose. He wasn't expecting something like _that_. "Rescue a _princess?"_ What was he, a knight in shining armor? Oh... now it made sense why he just fought a bunch of armored men.

"From a castle surrounded by lava and guarded by a dragon," Morvok elaborated with a gleeful grin.

His expression quickly fell into despair. What had he gotten himself into? Still, he wouldn't have any peace until he had his swamp back and this seemed to be the only plan that didn't involve him personally finding new homes for all the creatures stuck at his house.

However, a part of him felt the need to complete the quest since no one else had succeeded in saving this princess - who knew how long she had been waiting there alone with a dragon? He wouldn't be doing Morvok a favor, he'd be doing _her_ a favor. There was something nobler in that.

"Fine," he answered after a long silence. "I'll do it."

* * *

"This is a suicide mission - you know that, right?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, I know," Lance answered idly. Princess Katherine's castle of imprisonment was a few days journey on foot from Duloc but they both moved at a rather slow pace due to Lance's exhaustion from the fight and Keith's still healing leg. It was already dusk but both of them could see in the dark fairly well, so they decided to keep going for a few more hours before stopping to make camp for the night. "So why are you tagging along? I just needed you to show me how to get to Duloc."

"Because when you die I want to at least notify all the exiled creatures at your home that they can stay there."

"Oh. That's... comforting," he muttered, rolling his eyes. He had a feeling the wolf had more reason to stay than to deliver news of his death, but he had no idea what kind of reasoning a lone cursed human would have to stick around with a lone ailuran. "Since I'm about to _die,"_ he laid on thickly, "do you want to go ahead and tell me how you got cursed?"

Keith was silent for a stretch of time, and Lance figured he wouldn't answer again. Just when he was about to give up on any kind of response, he spoke so softly Lance was certain he wouldn't have heard him if his ears weren't so sensitive.

"…I screwed up."

"You… what?" It wasn't the response Lance was expecting and now his curiosity was fully ignited. "What happened? You're telling me this is a _punishment?"_

"That's usually how curses work."

"Well!" Lance made a groan of frustration. "You know what I mean! Usually when I think of a 'curse' it's more along the lines of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or touching that irresistibly shiny thing that you weren't supposed to, or accidentally drinking the wrong potion when you're sick - that sort of thing."

"…I guess you could argue I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But… not quite that." He let out a sharp exhale through his nose, which was probably his way of sighing as a wolf. "Why do you care so much to know?"

"I… I was going to make waffles…"

_"What."_

"What I mean is, I wanted to help you break your curse, if… you know, that's possible." He wasn't sure why he felt such a need to help a human who was a dire wolf, the last two creatures Lance would ever want to get involved with, but he figured it was because he was lonely. It had been so many years since he felt a connection to someone and here was a man who needed his help. Even though it would have been easier to let Keith go on his way and figure it out on his own, Lance knew it was wrong.

Keith stopped in his tracks, turning to face Lance who quickly paused as well. "Why do you want to help me?"

One of his ears flicked. "Because it's the right thing to do?"

"And you want to help rescue a random princess even though it'll probably get you killed."

"Mmm-hmm."

"But you want to get rid of all those fairy tale creatures instead of helping them yourself."

Lance made an uncomfortable sound. "That's not what I-"

"And you're alone, which is odd for your kind."

His tail started to lash and his voice grew tense. "And what would someone like _you_ know of _my kind?"_

"Why do you _want_ to be alone, Lance? You clearly _like_ having company and helping others, yet you're so adamant to live in solitude. Why is that?"

"It's not that _I_ want to live in solitude, it's that the world seems to think I _belong there!_ You saw how the creatures reacted at my house! They all thought I was going to murder them! _That's_ why I want to be alone. I have no other choice."

Lance started walking again, not waiting to see if Keith would follow. Keith watched him with a pensive expression before slightly trotting to catch up. They were silent as the sun finally set, the elongated shadows of the trees slowly being swallowed in the twilight. 

It wasn't until nightfall when the stars started to twinkle between the canopy of leaves did Keith break the silence.

"At least you disproved my hunch."

"Hmm?" Lance asked noncommittally.

"I wondered if you were alone because you were everything the rumors say about ailurans."

"A mindless bloodthirsty maniac?"

"Yep."

"Then why weren't you scared when we first met?"

"You weren't that scary."

Lance scoffed as if he were insulted. "Have you even _seen_ an ailuran in their therion form? Or, well, I guess humans call it our 'feral' form. Ugh."

"Aside from illustrations in books and paintings on walls? Nope." He barked a laugh. "I sure hope you don't get that ugly when you shift though."

"I'm certain they're grossly inaccurate." Lance fake-gagged. 

"Just like the rumors."

Lance looked down at him with a soft smile. Keith was skeptical like any rational person would be considering the tales surrounding his kind, and yet he didn't form an opinion of Lance until he learned his side of the story. He only hoped that more people could learn to be like Keith.

"Yep, just like the rumors."


	4. The Haphazard Rescue

When Pidge heard a shriek she ran to the west-facing window and saw someone just finished crossing the bridge. Her heart pounded faster at the prospect of someone coming to rescue her but she told herself not to get her hopes up. He would probably die like the last dozen men. Allura was magically bound to fight anyone who entered otherwise she would have let one of her rescuers walk in and out without any conflict for the sake of letting her go free. Allura was a dragon of great integrity and she assured Pidge she would only allow one who held greatness within to be worthy of saving her.

She wondered what kind of greatness was within the screaming weirdo below.

The worst part was waiting. Pidge figured she would be good at waiting by this point, but it was different when a rescuer entered within the castle walls. Too many times she sat on her bed listening to dragon roars and human screams only to learn she listened to a man painfully die.

She reasonably hated Allura at first. It took years for her to understand that she was just as much a prisoner as she was and even more years to become her friend. Allura took no pleasure in her job but she had no choice but to fulfill it. Now that she was older, Pidge realized how lucky she was to have had Allura as her dragon. She wouldn't trade her for anyone else.

Minutes passed. She could hear various sounds of Allura moving around the castle as she roared, the crumbling and crashing of castle stone, and the occasional yell from her soon-to-die rescuer. She felt like the ruckus carried on for longer than usual and she wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. Was Allura having an off day or was her rescuer standing a chance?

She stood from the bed and walked over to her dresser, opening the top middle drawer to stare down at her long forgotten crown. She pulled it out, gingerly dusting it off as she walked over to the floor-length mirror and placed it slowly upon her head as she stared herself down.

If she were about to be rescued, she would make it known she was royalty.

* * *

"You really think a helmet and hiding your tail under your shirt will fool her?"

"Well," Lance started as he adjusted his shirt, "I certainly don't want to scare her when she first sees me. For all I know, she might be terrified of ailurans." The helmet squished his ears down uncomfortably and he was certain he would pull some kind of muscle in his tail having it coiled around his torso but otherwise he appeared completely human. Even if he opened his mouth to reveal his fangs the princess wouldn't see them with the helmet's mouthguard.

"What will you do when she eventually finds out?" Keith asked indifferently.

"Manhandle her."

Keith rolled his eyes as Lance started to cross the wooden bridge that led to the princess' castle, boiling lava popping and sizzling below in brilliant reds. After a few creaky steps he looked over his shoulder at the wolf still sitting on safe ground.

"Are you coming?"

"Nah, I'll wait here," Keith answered.

Lance narrowed his eyes into sapphire daggers. "You coward."

"I don't know about you but I feel like living at least a little longer."

He gave a dark smile, and although Keith couldn't see it behind the helmet's metal mouthguard he could hear it in Lance's tone of voice. "But you won't be able to watch me die from all the way out here."

"… a valid point."

"Besides, this is a _princess_ we're rescuing. If you help, she would be indebted to you as well. It'd probably be real easy for her to buy some kind of potion that would turn you human again."

His ears perked up. "You're right…"

"In fact she might feel more indebted to you simply because you're human and I'm not."

"That's… depressing, but also a valid point."

"So are you coming or not?"

Keith let out a long sigh, getting up onto all fours. "Fine, I'll tag along."

* * *

When the door slammed open and a man came bursting in heaving for breath, everything in Pidge stilled. Their eyes met, sapphire found gold, and her heart sped up as everything wound up inside her waiting for thirteen years finally came loose.

"What took you so long?!!"

Lance's eyes widened slightly, his cool gaze wandering down and back up as he fully took in her visage. She wore a velvety floor-length emerald dress, her honey hair loosely pulled back into a long, thick braid that trailed to her stomach. Her golden circlet adorned with triangular emeralds matched her eyes and dress. She had soft features with a sharp expression that demanded authority, and she somehow simultaneously looked like spoiled royalty as well as a battle bred warrior. He stood in the doorway breathing heavily for a moment before he spoke.

"You're a lot shorter than what I was expecting."

"And you're a lot less _muscular_ than what _I_ was expecting!!"

Lance gave her a deadpan expression. "Do you want me to save you or not?"

Pidge huffed, crossing her arms in frustration. The man was pushing all her buttons and yet she couldn't help finding him utterly attractive and she hated it. "What's your name?"

"Lance."

 _Lance??_ Her heart soared for the briefest moment. _Like Lancelot, a true knight in shining armor!!_ She unfolded her arms, fidgeting awkwardly as she moved her weight between her feet. "Pidge."

"That's not... Katherine?"

"Oh, I'm Katherine. Or Katie. But I go by Pidge." She was now bouncing from foot to foot like she was getting ready to run a marathon.

He stared at her with painful confusion, his eye twitching slightly. "Do you have any other names you'd like to share?"

Allura roared in the background, shaking the very walls. Pidge turned to the window as if she were expecting the dragon to come busting in at any moment, then whipped her head back to her rescuer. "You've only made it half-way, Sir Lance-"

"Please, just call me Lance-"

"-and I doubt you will survive but I'd very much like you to, so you'd better hurry and get on with the rescuing bit!!"

"Alright alright! You're so impatient!"

"Do you _blame_ me?"

Lance started to open his mouth and then clamped it shut. "Guess not."

"Where are your weapons?" Pidge asked, suddenly noticing as she looked him over. She was too distracted by his eyes to notice that all he had were his clothes and a few pieces of armor. "How are you going to defend against Al- the dragon?"

He could feel the sweat trickling down his neck as the princess stared him down awaiting an answer, his tail now feeling even more uncomfortable hidden beneath his shirt. "I uh... I'm kinda winging this."

"You're..." She sighed in disbelief, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. _I'm going to have to watch this man die right in front of me..._ "Do you even have a plan for our escape?"

Lance felt like he was at the judgment bar and his knees were starting to grow weak. "Uhmmm... no? I was thinking of just booking it. How fast can you run?"

"HOW _FAST_ CAN I-!?" She clenched her hands into fists at her sides, taking a long inhale and exhale to calm herself. "I can run perfectly fine, but do _you_ want to _die?"_ She knew Allura wouldn't harm her but she had no idea if Lance could simply outrun her attacks. One did not simply flee an enraged dragon.

"I think that's a bit of an exaggeration." He raised a skeptical brow. "I'm quite resilient."

She wasn't sure whether to be concerned or annoyed. "You're only human, Sir Lance."

"Oh," he said with a long pause. "Right."

"You really have no plan? Aren't you supposed to sweep me off my feet and carry me out the tower by rope down yonder onto your valiant steed? Or _something?"_

"...You've had a lot of time to plan this."

"That's an understatement," she grumbled. "Look, we should probably come up with some kind of plan before we-WHAAA!"

Lance was suddenly knocking her to the ground and shielding her with his body when the door to her room flew off the hinges, whacking him hard in the shoulder. He made a wincing sound of pain and looked down at her startled expression with concern in his deep blue eyes. She noticed up close that a thick scar passed through his left eye, splitting his brow.

From the deep growling that sounded outside, Pidge assumed it was Allura who knocked the door down. Peeking around her knight's limbs she saw the tips of Allura's pearly white scaled hand scraping around the door opening. If they didn't hurry, Allura would figure out a way to squeeze her arm through and claw Lance out.

"Are you alright?" he breathed.

"Yeah... yeah I'm fine." It took her a second to process he had protected her from harm and took the damage to keep her safe. Even if he was an idiot, at least he had one charismatic quality of a knight. "Are _you_ alright?"

"Pfft, I'm good." It didn't hurt because (like he said) he was resilient but then he remembered he was pretending to be human. "I-I mean, yeah it'll sure hurt tomorrow! But I'll be okay, nothing's broken or anything. I think."

"Great! Are you good to finish rescuing me? Because we should probably leave now."

"Yeah yeah, good plan." He got up and held out a hand to help her onto her feet, the contact sending a delightful shock up his arm. Her hands were so _soft_ , a stark contrast to his dry and weathered hands, their petite size barely fitting within his own. The touch lingered a moment after he helped her up, his eyes locked onto the warmth of their contact until she pulled away and he moved his gaze to find her staring at him.

"You... alright? Did you hit your head fighting the dragon?"

"Oh... what? No. Sorry." He shook his head to clear the fog and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder. "Clearly that exit is blocked. Do you have rope so we can use the window?"

Pidge gave him a look, holding her arms out in disbelief. "What do I look like, a rescue princess starter pack?"

"I was just _asking,"_ he growled. "Thennn..." He walked over to the window and peered down, realizing it was easily a hundred feet up from the grass below. _He_ might survive such a leap, but there was no way the princess would. There were no useful handholds along the tower's smooth surface so climbing down wasn't an option either. He had to think of something else.

He started to head towards the door but Pidge stopped him with an outstretched hand. "Wait! What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going to try talking to her."

"No..." Her eyes widened and she clutched his sleeve a little tighter. "Don't you know what you're dealing with!?"

"A dragon?" He started to continue but Pidge pulled him back and placed her hand on his shoulder, forcing him to look back at her serious expression.

"Please don't die. I don't - I _can't_... you've gotten this far. You can't die now."

He offered her a sad smile and although she couldn't see it behind his mouthguard, it showed in his eyes. "Don't worry. I don't plan on dying until after you're safe."

And with that, he left her to face the roaring dragon outside.

* * *

What started off as a decent, albeit insane plan B, Lance ended up resorting to plan A. Keith failed in distracting the dragon (Lance was very disappointed in his flirting abilities) and although Lance felt like he convinced the dragon to let Pidge go, she ended up chasing them shortly after they reached the bottom of the tower.

"You go on ahead with Keith, I'll distract her!" Lance yelled, giving Pidge an extra push forward before he veered off to the right down a different corridor.

"But I can't escape without you!" she pleaded.

"I'll meet up with you in a few!" Lance only vaguely understood the layout of the castle ruins but he reckoned he could get the ginormous white dragon stuck in some entrance or archway. He heard her distinct growling inhale and rounded a corner just in time to avoid a blast of flames. At this point he wished he could shift since he would be faster and less stressed out on all fours but he knew that was impossible with a dragon on his tail and a human princess waiting for him to finish rescuing her.

He got to a point winding around tighter parts of the building that the dragon had to backtrack while he was able to slip through and make his way to the exit. It wasn't much of a head start but it was more than he could bargain for at this point.

Keith and Pidge were waiting at the foot of the bridge and started running when they saw Lance (or more likely Allura) approaching. Keith and Pidge were nearly across once Lance started on the bridge, the dragon sending a wall of fire as one last attempt to thwart the princess' rescuer. Before Lance could make it half-way, the bridge's ropes caught fire and snapped, causing the wooden walkway to plummet to the lava below.

Lance and Pidge were able to grasp wooden slats of the bridge as it fell against the cliffside, but Keith wasn't so lucky since he didn't have hands. Before he could plummet to the fiery abyss below, Lance held out an arm and caught him but the weight was too much as the wooden board broke beneath his grip. Lance clawed at the next board his free hand could find as he fell a few feet, feeling Keith's hind leg slipping between his sweaty fingers as the heat intensified.

"Keith, do you trust me?" Lance asked.

"This is a really poor time to ask me something like that-"

"I'll take that as a 'yes,'" he said before grunting as he flung Keith up and over his head. The wolf soared for a moment before landing hard against an outcropping of rock along the cliffside. Keith let out a whine from the impact but was otherwise safe for the time being.

Lance climbed up the bridge like a ladder as the dragon roared in the background, whether angrily or somberly it was hard to tell. When he reached Pidge she was clinging to the bridge as she looked behind her at Allura and the castle with watery eyes.

"Hey princess, are you okay to climb?"

She looked down at him and blinked a few times, shaking her head to clear her emotions. "Yes, I'm… I'm going."

Once they reached the top, Pidge could feel the magic barrier lift like a cool summer breeze. So many years of pounding against the invisible wall in a vain attempt to escape and suddenly it was gone. Pidge felt herself grow weak from everything that had happened, finding herself falling to her knees and breathing heavily. Lance meanwhile took a rope from the bridge to help hoist Keith up from the rocks below.

When he saw her on the ground, Lance knelt down to be on her eye level. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"No no, I'm fine," she said as she hastily wiped her eyes with the heel of her hand. "I've just… never been rescued before…"

"Obviously," Lance said with a laugh, patting her shoulder before helping her stand up. The contact of her hand against his still sent a wave up his arm, and despite the sweatiness of both their palms it was something that caused his heart to beat faster.

 _"You're_ injured though, as is your noble steed," Pidge fretted, observing all the various cuts and scrapes on her knight and his wolf. "I really should take a look at your shoulder and bandage all your injuries before we continue on."

"We'll be fine, we can set up camp in a bit once we reach the nearby lake."

Pidge stiffened, realizing it would take more than a day's journey to arrive at her knight's kingdom. She had to have him kiss her now to break the curse so she wouldn't have to hide it, so he would never have to find out.

"Well, then, you may at least remove your helmet, good sir knight."

"Uhhhm... no."

"Why not?"

Lance was not expecting the helmet to become an issue and he felt the sweat on the back of his neck increase at the prospect of her finding out what he was. "I uhh... I have helmet hair! I look awful with it, really. You should definitely see me on a better hair day."

"Please..." Pidge held her hands in front of her, an excited sparkle in her eyes. She only got a good look at his deep blue eyes and a fairly decent impression of his physique (his shirt was loose but his pants were tight) and she wanted to properly see him. "I woudst desire to look upon the face of my rescuer."

"Oh no you wouldn't... _tst."_

"But... how will you kiss me?" she asked with a soft laugh.

"What??!" He looked at Keith for some kind of answer. "That wasn't in the job description!"

"...maaaybe it's a perk?" he offered noncommittally.

"No, it is _destiny!"_ Pidge said, her expression distraught. "Oh you must know how it goes! A princess locked in a tower, beset by a dragon, is rescued by a brave knight, and then..." She batted her eyes softly as she looked up at him. "They share true love's first kiss."

"Wait..." Keith started. "You think that _Lance_ … of all people… is your true love?"

"Well of course I do!"

As soon as she admitted it, Lance and Keith looked at each other for a moment before breaking out into howling laughter (quite literally for Keith). Pidge looked insulted and placed her hands angrily on her hips.

 _"What_ is so _funny?!"_

Once Lance recovered from his laughter he clarified. "Let's just say I'm not... your _type,"_ he said with a snort.

"But of course you are! You're my rescuer!" She was starting to lose her patience when all she wanted was her rescue to play out more smoothly, closer to how she was told it would happen. "Now... now remove your helmet!"

"Look, I really don't think this is a good idea," he warned.

"Just take off the helmet."

"I'm not going to."

"Take! It! Off!"

"No!"

"NOW!"

"Okay okay!" He let out a long exhale, his eyes defiant. He had no idea how she would react once she knew, whether she would run or try to fight. As far as he could tell she had no weapons on her, but she might have had a dagger hidden in her dress or if she threw her crown at him it might hurt. "As you command, your highness."

He pulled the helmet off, happy to have the weight off his ears as he ran a hand through his hair to make sure he didn't indeed have helmet hair. The lower half of his face was covered in soot and grime in vertical lines from the helmet's mouthguard and his bangs were slicked back from the sweat, giving him an oddly charming yet rugged appearance. He lifted his shirt to reveal his striped tail wrapped around his torso and slowly unraveled it, moving it around as if he were agitated to stretch out all his vertebrae after being cramped for so long.

"Oh..." Pidge breathed, taking him in with a gaping mouth. "You're _ailuran..."_

"Sorry to disappoint. Were you expecting prince charming?" he asked dryly as he tossed the helmet aside.

"Well yes, actually!" She took a deep breath to try and steel her rising panic. She was grateful to be saved but everything she ever dreamed about was falling apart before it could even finish. "No... no no no, this is all _wrong!_ You're not supposed to be an ailuran!"

Lance let out a sigh. "Princess, I was _sent_ to rescue you by Lord Morvok. He's the one that wants to marry you."

Her eyes narrowed. "Then why didn't _he_ come rescue me?"

"…Good question! You should ask him that when we get there," he said irritably.

"But I have to be rescued by my true love! Not an ailuran a-a-and his beast!"

"So much for noble steed," Keith said dryly.

"Look, princess, you're not making my job any easier-" Lance started but she cut him off.

"Well I'm sorry but your job is not my problem. You can tell Lord Morvok that if he wants to rescue me _properly_ , I'll be waiting for him right! _Here!"_ She sat down on a nearby boulder with great emphasis, her arms and legs crossed.

"Hey, I'm no one's messenger boy, alright?" Lance got in real close to her, his next words sounding like a threat. _"I'm a delivery boy."_

"You wouldn't _dare."_

Lance immediately scooped her up and threw her over his good shoulder, all while she kicked and screamed. She slammed her fists against his back, no longer caring for his injuries as she spewed about how this wasn't proper or dignified and how Lance was a barbarian (among other things). After a few minutes of throwing a royal tantrum she calmed down, accepting her fate. At least she was rescued, albeit in the most unorthodox way possible.

This certainly was nothing like how Pidge imagined it.

And she had many years to dream up countless scenarios.

"So why did _you_ come to rescue me?" she asked with a heavy sigh. She watched the movement of his tail as he walked and noticed he had a cut on his lower back. "Is Duloc more of a... melting pot?"

Lance frowned. "How do you mean?"

"Well... you're _ailuran_. Aren't humans scared of your kind? Or- wait- don't tell me Lord Morvok is ailuran-"

"Relax, princess, Lord Morvok is an ordinary, boring human."

"Then why did he pick _you_ to come rescue me?"

"He didn't, I demanded that he give me my swamp back and he said he would do so if I fulfilled this quest for him. Which is _dumb_ considering he's the reason I got into this mess in the first place."

"Your swamp? You live in a _swamp?"_

"Yeah... it's the only place I can survive on my own."

Pidge was quiet a moment, her heart growing heavy. "You live all alone?" Here she was, judging Lance so quickly just by what he was when he might not have been so different from her after all. They both spent years by themselves, devoid of love and contact with others. As strongly as she missed her family she was grateful for Allura for the years they shared friendship, but she still felt deeply alone. "What about Keith?"

"Keith I met only a few days ago."

When she looked at the wolf walking behind her, he nodded.

"What happened to your family?"

Lance felt his chest tighten and he set Pidge down, continuing to walk on ahead without a hitch. She looked at Keith who stopped beside her, his eye level only slightly higher than her own.

"Bad question?" she whispered.

"Probably," Keith muttered.

She watched Lance as his tail lashed in agitation but his shoulders and ears drooped. She followed after him but made sure to keep a good distance. They walked the rest of the way in silence until they reached a peaceful glade with a clear, relatively large pond. It was approaching the time for sunset and Pidge had to make sure she went to bed somewhere private before darkness fell.

She was happy to find a small alcove between two giant rocks, roomy enough for her to sleep and completely secluded once she found a large piece of bark as a makeshift door. Lance and Keith were content to sleep under the stars by the small fire they started.

"Please, can I look over your wounds before we run out of sunlight?"

Lance looked up at her, one of his ears flicking. "I'll be fine, princ-"

"No! I saw a cut on your lower back and it looks _bad_. If I don't treat it, it might get infected. There might be other wounds you're unaware of as well." She held out her hands to show strips of cloth and gathered herbs. "I already ripped my slip to use as dressings. What use is there in me being rescued if my rescuer dies before I can safely get where I need to go?"

"Alright then…" Lance let out a sigh of defeat, shucking off his vest and pulling off his shirt with a wince. "I guess that's a sign it's worse than I thought…"

Pidge couldn't help the heat that rushed to her face at the sight of his defined muscles. _Were his shoulders always that broad?_ It got worse when she moved to examine his toned backside and he arched in pain when she first pressed a wet cloth to his crimson mess of a cut.

"I'm sorry but it needs to be cleaned! Here, try to relax. It'll only hurt more if your muscles are tight." She placed a hand on his shoulder that wasn't heavily bruised and gently worked on cleaning the jagged incision, Lance only releasing the occasional hiss and his tail sometimes thumping against her legs as he twitched in pain.

Sharp needles cut along his nerves with every touch upon his wound but there was something about the skin to skin contact with the princess that kept him calm. Her hand on his shoulder was an anchor and he tried focusing on its soothing warmth over the jolts of pain that traveled up his spine. When she was done bandaging the wound on his back the rest of the injuries were easy to dress, only minor scrapes and cuts. Pidge also helped Keith with a cut on his shoulder although his was harder to bandage with all the dark fur. She promised she would keep tabs on it as well as Lance's wounds before she started to head towards her makeshift bed.

Lance offered to cook her some fish from the pond for dinner but Pidge had to lie and say she wasn't hungry. The sun was too low, transforming the sky into warm, bright colors, and she couldn't risk them seeing her curse. She ate a few berries she collected while gathering medicinal herbs to tide her hunger for now and excused herself to sleep.

As soon as the sun set, a shooting pain traveled down her spine and she had to cover her mouth to prevent herself from letting out a scream. She should have been used to this by now but the agony her curse caused became no less difficult with time. The only blessing in her suffering was that the transformation didn't take long, only several seconds of intense pain.

She curled in on her side, heaving from the pain as she let her tears flow freely across her face. She was grateful for the extra warmth her tail provided to her feet but she still ached from the pain in her lower back. She would soon meet Lord Morvok and she would kiss her true love and truly be saved. Despite her self-reassurances that her own fairy tale ending was within her horizons, something felt wrong. It wasn't the fact that her knight in shining armor was a lone ailuran doing a noble's chores, but something else caused her heart to twist at the uncertainty of her future.

Pidge tried to calm her anxious mind as she cried herself to sleep.


	5. Stabbing Pains

The ground was so cold that it seeped into her bones. Pidge never thought she would be missing her place of imprisonment but she wished she were surrounded by boiling lava as she stirred from her slumber. Thanks to her curse, she always woke up as soon as the sun broke the horizon because nothing quite woke one up more than losing an appendage. Her head felt a little dizzy from losing all the muscles in her ailuran ears and her feet felt sore from her changing toes, but it didn't take long to reorient herself and exit her makeshift bedroom.

Lance and Keith were curled up on the ground close to the now black and extinguished fire, still soundly asleep. Pidge stopped, staring at their resting faces and feeling something tug at her heart. These two worked hard and risked their very lives to save her and all she had done in return was throw a royal tantrum. Nothing panned out how she expected or even hoped (and she thought her expectations were pretty reasonable) but she realized she was at least rescued from that awful tower. She reached a point in her life where she came to terms with no one ever succeeding in saving her, but here she was, free to run away and live her own life if she so wished. She was still bound down by the chains of her curse, but at least she was free. And she owed it all to the ailuran and the wolf who was apparently human.

Even if Lord Morvok didn't come out to rescue her himself, he might have had his reasons. She didn't have the whole story and couldn't jump to conclusions. Certainly nothing was ideal with an ailuran rescuing her, but she couldn't look a gift horse in the mouth especially when said horse was her freedom. She felt sick to her stomach for thinking so selfishly and wondered how she could go about providing a proper apology.

She heard Lance's stomach growl loudly and he shifted slightly but remained asleep. He involuntarily gave her an answer to her question and she set out into the trees to find something for breakfast. As she was hunting for berries she realized she had no idea what the diet of an ailuran and a once human but currently cursed wolf would entail. She didn't exactly eat at night when she was ailuran so she had no idea if Lance was strictly carnivorous and she wondered if Keith was cursed to also  _ eat _ like a wolf.

Perhaps berries wouldn't cut it.

Pidge didn't want to wander too far in case one of her rescuers woke up and saw her absence. As she was lost in thought trying to come up with breakfast that didn't involve fishing or hunting, a bird sang too obnoxiously for this early in the morning. In the midst of grating her teeth, she realized that birds meant eggs, and eggs were fantastic for breakfast (and possibly something both Lance and Keith could eat?). She raised her eyes to the treetops, searching branches for signs of nests.

Now that she had a clear goal set in mind, it didn't take her long to locate a nest and steal some eggs. When she arrived back at their campsite dappled in the morning sunlight, she discovered both the men exactly as she left them. She found a relatively smooth slab of rock, washed it in the lake, and worked on getting the fire lit again. Keith stirred awake but Lance was still dead to the world.

"Morning princess," Keith greeted before letting out a toothy yawn, complete with a soft whine at the end like a dog. "Did you sleep alright?"

His voice startled her; she was still trying to get used to the fact that a dire wolf could talk (and that he was actually human). "Oh, it was... fine." She was horribly sore from sleeping on the ground and her bones still felt cold but she managed to get a solid night's sleep. The events of yesterday wore her out and she was still trying to sort through all of her many confusing emotions. "Do you think you can... eat eggs...? As a wolf?"

"Prob...ably..." he said unconvincingly as he stared at the raw eggs beginning to sizzle, his nose twitching.

"Do you think Lance can eat them?"

"Do you think Lance can eat what?" Lance asked, suddenly kneeling next to her, peering over her shoulder to watch her cook.

Pidge sucked in a sharp breath, giving him a hard glare for startling her like that. "Eggs. Can you eat eggs?"

"Oh, yeah. You made breakfast for us?" he asked, surprised.

"Well I certainly can't eat all of these myself," she answered dryly. She let out a heavy sigh. "Sorry. I wanted to apologize for yesterday, I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. I was being ridiculous and should not have taken my frustrations out on either of you."

Lance's ears flicked, his eyebrows raised. He was taken aback by her apology and wasn't quite sure how to respond. "I-it's okay princess, I know yesterday was... a lot to take in."

"Oh no, not like that!" she stumbled out with raised hands. "I mean it was a  _ shock _ for sure that you turned out to be ailuran but it's okay, there's nothing-"

"I-I wasn't referring to that!" He let out a nervous laugh. "I meant the whole ordeal of being rescued and nearly falling and dying when the bridge collapsed, and... you know, me turning out not... to not be your knight in shining armor." Before she could comment on that he raised his palm up. "It's okay, I'm used to it. You don't need to apologize."

Pidge opened her mouth but quickly clamp it shut, biting her lower lip in frustration. Her apology didn't go quite the way she planned, but she was starting to get used to that notion at this point. They ate their eggs and continued on their way towards Duloc, this time with Pidge walking instead of being carried by Lance.

They walked for a bit in silence and Pidge utilized this time to think of ways to ensure they made camp for the night before the sun set. She came up with a few reasonable arguments that hopefully Lance or Keith or even both of them would find agreeable. She couldn't risk one of them insisting they keep traveling through the night, especially since Lance or Keith could argue that they could carry her while she sleeps.

Her concerns were quickly replaced with far bigger troubles when Lance suddenly sharpened and dodged a speeding blade.

The dagger sunk into the ground a few feet behind him and he quickly dodged a second, but in the midst of his movement, he was hit with a third. It embedded into his shoulder and he fell over with a grunt. He rolled up as fast as he could, pulling the dagger out with a hiss.

"So I take it this is mine now?" he asked dully to the trees. He dodged another with a backflip, gracefully pulling a previous dagger out of the ground as a second weapon. Their oppressors finally came out and with a heavy heart, he realized they were grossly outnumbered.

"Don't even think about it, cat," the bandit closest to them said. "We don't want to cause any trouble."

"Tch. Something tells me you're not here to ask for directions."

She offered him a wicked grin. "Surrender and no one has to get hurt."

Lance assessed his surroundings with twitchy ears and shifty eyes. There were nine of them and they were well equipped with a range of weapons from daggers to swords to bows. Even if he could manage to flee from them while carrying the princess, there were archers that could easily shoot them down from a distance. He doubted the princess had any fighting abilities and Keith probably wouldn't last long against so many in an unfamiliar body. He hated to admit it but surrender was his best option at the moment. He could figure out a way to escape later but he couldn't risk them hurting Pidge.

He dropped the daggers, holding his hands up for them all to see. "Alright, fine."

Pidge and Keith both looked at him with incredulous expressions. As the circle closed in on them, ready to tie them up and take them hostage, Pidge and Keith burst out into fighting mode with shouts and barks of fury. Everyone was startled by Pidge's ability to fight, Lance included, as she successfully disarmed and took out two grown men with her bare hands before she was pinned down. Lance took the opportunity of the group's distraction and knocked another one unconscious. Before they could make much progress, however, there was an arrow in Lance's back and Keith let out a sharp whine, collapsing to the ground.

"Keith!" Lance saw blood pooling around the wolf's still body and it caused a stabbing pain in his stomach that hurt more than the arrow in his back.

When he heard the princess cry out from a blow to the face, everything became blurred. Sound faded and his limbs felt heavy. His task suddenly became so much more than simply delivering the princess safely to get his swamp back. He had to ensure she didn't  _ die _ . He felt pressure in his bones and anxiety speed through his veins as he tried to reach her. With his eyes trained on her and moving in her direction, he felt a force slam into the back of his neck as one of the bandits knocked him down. He hit the ground hard, his head landing against the side of a rock. His vision faded in and out of darkness, bright stars threatening to pull him into unconsciousness.

Before he or Pidge could properly react, they were both pinned down and unable to move despite their struggles. Pidge was pressed into the earth while Lance was forced to sit upon his knees, blood from his head injury cascading down into his left eye. Someone pulled the arrow out of his back and he let out a snarl.

"A princess ought to go for a mighty fine price," one of the bandits said, his long face smug as he picked up Pidge's circlet that fell a few feet away from her. "And the boss will love to hear we got an ailuran."

Lance's heart raced at the thought of what they would plan to do with them but he was more scared for Pidge, who could just as easily be sold as a slave as she could to another royal wanting to save her. He tried to think of ways to get them out of this situation but at the present moment he was having a hard time staying conscious.

Pidge nearly broke free of her restraints as she fought her oppressors, but Lance's veins ran cold when he saw the bandit's hands violently grasp her ankle. "This one squirms too much," he chuckled, gripping her flesh and twisting it. There was a crisp snap and Pidge let out a high pitched scream of pain, tears streaming from her tightly shut eyes.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Lance shouted but was quickly met with a punch to the jaw to keep him quiet.

"Hey! Don't damage the goods!" the apparent leader snapped in regards to the princess.

"I just broke her ankle, she's fine," the bandit countered. "It'll keep her from escaping."

"All right, fine! But be careful loading her up."

Lance heard a coach ride up near the clearing and someone dismounting a horse. A woman's voice spoke before he saw her move into his field of vision and his eyes widened once he got a good look at her.

"N-nyma??"

She turned her head to stare at him with a hard expression, her dark eyes cold. Her leader asked, "Do you know this ailuran?"

Without removing her eyes from Lance, she answered him. "No. I've never seen this... creature before in my life."

He would know her chestnut eyes and braided blonde hair anywhere. There was no way Lance would forget the face of his first friend.

And yet here she was, betraying him again.

"Nyma, didn't you have something we could use on our feline friend here?" the leader asked.

She took a few steps closer to him, brandishing a small vial from the pouch upon her belt. "It should help prevent him from getting any clever plans about escaping. Besides, the boss will want to see him this way when we present him." 

Before Lance could protest, his mouth was being forced open by a strong hand and the liquid poured down his throat. It burned as it traveled down and he felt like he was drowning, choking and gasping for breath. He couldn't even formulate words to ask what they had done to him as he felt the heat spread through his body. 

"What are you doing to him?!" Pidge screamed, her face creased with worry, tears still cascading down her cheeks. She was terrified they had poisoned him but they mentioned something about showing him to their boss. With a sobering thought, she realized that did not necessarily mean he had to be delivered alive. "Don't hurt him!!"

"Don't worry, he'll be fine," the bandit holding her down said. He grabbed her and flung her over his shoulder, taking her towards the back of the open coach. She saw Lance trembling and Keith motionless in the clearing before she was set down not so gently in the back of what appeared to be a prison carriage. The inside was reinforced with heavy metal walls, floor, and ceiling. It wasn't long until Lance was tossed in as well, the steel doors shut behind him with a loud sliding of the locks.

Lance was making strange sounds that were borderline growls behind clenched teeth and Pidge couldn't help the fear that fluttered in her chest. His breaths came out heavy and strained, his limbs still shaking as he pulled himself up off the floor onto his hands and knees.

"Lance?"

"Stay -  _ back!!"  _ he snarled. She noticed his incisors, already too feral for a human, had elongated even further and something about his eyes seemed even sharper. And then it all clicked in her mind when she saw him shakily shuck off his vest and fingerless gloves and then positioned his feet where his knees once were.

He was being forced to shift.

Pidge couldn't take her eyes off of him as the metamorphosis took over his bones, stretching every limb and joint to fit his other form. She heard the creaking of his bones and flesh, the tearing of his clothes as he grew in size, dark shades of fur covering his skin. While he appeared to be in pain from the strange liquid earlier, now he only seemed slightly uncomfortable as his body adjusted to the transformation. When she thought he had grown significantly in size he seemed to stretch even more, his face elongating further to fit even larger fangs which she saw from his curled lips.

While it was fairly dark in their prison because the only source of light was a small barred window on the door, she could make out the unique design of his stripes that traveled vertically along the length of his spine with spots adorning his back and sides. The combination of stripes and spots were so unique that it was obvious he was an ailuran instead of any other type of wild cat. He was mostly dark brown save for his underside which appeared to be a similar color to his skin tone. His paws were massive and could easily cover her entire head and she could only imagine his claws were as long as one of her fingers.

Lance let out a heavy exhale and finally opened his eyes, blinking sapphires in the shadows. He shook his head a little and stretched as far as he could in the now tiny space for him, then settled down and curled his long legs into his stomach.

Pidge didn't realize she was hyperventilating until Lance was staring at her, his ears pulled forward attentively. She knew first hand how large ailurans could become but seeing Lance so close made her realize the gravity of the situation. All the stories her parents told her as a child came rushing back, filled with blood lust and danger and fear. She barely knew Lance but she was certain his instincts would kick in at any moment now...

And there was nothing she could do to save herself.

He could smell the fear radiating from her long before he heard the thrumming of her heart or recognized the quickness of her breaths. She was plastered up against the corner, her hands gripping at the walls. He let out a low grunt of concern but it only caused her to suck in a startled gasp. Even if there was anything he could do to help her broken ankle (aside from simply licking it), she would be too scared to have him approach.

She was terrified of him and although it hurt deep down, he couldn't find it in himself to blame her. He could only imagine what kind of rumors and superstitions surrounded his kind and the fabled childhood bedtime stories that were orchestrated to make him the enemy. For all he knew, this might have been the first time she's seen one of his kind and she was raised with the belief that he was a monster.

He didn't know how to comfort her when he was stuck in this form so he did the next best solution given the situation. He slowly pulled himself up and turned around so his back faced her, then settled down to rest. His transformation stretched his wounds and they ached and throbbed, but they didn't hurt nearly as bad as they would in his sapien form. He wanted to clean his wounds so they would quickly heal but he remained still and made himself as small as possible for Pidge's sake. Whenever her heartbeat began to slow down he would try to attend to his injuries.

Pidge felt like her heartbeat would never slow down.

_ "Ailurans are trickster creatures," her mother said one night when she was still a child in her family's castle, years before her curse. "They lead you to believe they are like us when they're nothing but wild animals, driven by instinct and a lust for blood." _

_ "So they're like werewolves or mermaids?" _

_ "They're similar, yes." The illustration in the book she held in her daughter's lap hardly gave justice to the beast's sharp features. It appeared to only be a mountain lion but ailurans were hardly giant cats. They were faster, stronger, more resilient. It was like illustrating a dog to showcase a hellhound. "But they are far more dangerous. You can fight a mermaid and there are weaknesses to werewolves if you have the right tools... but if you see an ailuran, especially in their feral form, you are not safe." _

_ "What should I do if I ever see one?" Pidge asked, genuinely curious to know more about these mysteriously dangerous creatures despite her growing fear. _

_ "I pray you never do, dear Katherine." Colleen gently stroked her daughter's silky tresses which glowed golden in the candlelight. "It's a miracle I survived. If it weren't for your father, neither of us would be here today." _

It was a cruel irony that the witch cursed her to turn into an ailuran at night, the very creature her family resented. And here she would die by one, only shortly after being rescued from her tower of imprisonment.

The carriage jerked forward and started to move. Pidge remained in her corner with her heart threatening to burst out of her chest, her ankle swelling and throbbing like a hammer pounding against her bone. Minutes passed as she carefully watched Lance with widened eyes. She was waiting with bated breath for the moment where the scent of blood triggered his feral need to consume and tear her to shreds.

But Lance only laid there, his side slowly rising and falling with deep, steady breaths.

Her logic kicked in once her overwhelming fear had waned.  _ They wouldn't put both of us in here if they were concerned about Lance devouring me... _ She was too precious of cargo to risk such a thing. Lance seemed to know the blonde bandit named Nyma, so perhaps she knew more about ailurans or at least knew Lance well enough to say with confidence that he wouldn't eat anyone. A seed of doubt was planted into her mind and she started to question everything she knew about ailurans, but she couldn't focus on that now.

She took slow, deep breaths to recover herself and steady her heart rate. Lance made no move to hurt her and seemed to be sleeping... for now, at least. She carefully worked on slipping off her left shoe, ripping her stocking and pulling it off her leg, and then wrapped her broken ankle to the best of her ability. When the coach hit a dip in the road she cried out in pain from her bone jostling against the hard prison floor.

This alerted Lance, who was suddenly staring at her with his head turned over his shoulder. She never noticed any movement from him so to see his immediate attention caused her to freeze up once again. He blinked slowly and let out a chuff like a tiger. She had no idea what he was trying to say but it felt like a question.

“It hurts,” she said softly, her eyes still brimming with tears. For some reason speaking to him caused her heart to calm down ever so slightly. She couldn’t reassure him by saying she was fine because she was far from it. She was scared, uncertain about where they were headed, and she felt powerless from both her injury and Lance’s presence. Answering him with full honesty somehow eased the tension in the cell. 

“Are  _ you _ okay?” she asked, her eyes trained on the raw gash running along his lower back. It nearly tripled in size since he was in his humanoid form and she could only imagine it hurt as badly as it sounded.

Lance made a sound that felt similar to a noncommittal hum. He slowly got up and turned around to face her, laying back down with his hips twisted, sending both hind legs to the side and his front pair crossed. He stretched out a back leg towards her and leaned his head towards her injured foot, then pressed his nose against his haunch, looking back at Pidge to see if she understood.

She blinked a few times, completely dumbfounded. She wasn’t sure if it was her lingering fear interfering or if she was having a hard time connecting that the giant feline before her was an intelligent person beneath all the paws and fur trying to communicate through body language. His ear twitched impatiently and he lifted up one of his hind legs to emphasize his point, setting it back down close to her.

Her eyebrows slowly rose as she connected the dots in this bizarre game of charades. “You want me to elevate my leg?”

Lance’s expression went from annoyed to excited, his head nodding up and down. Pidge realized that on his facial markings he had dark stripes above the creamy highlights of his eyelids that served as eyebrows and he had far more facial muscles than the average feline. It was almost unsettling how expressive Lance was and how it made him appear less like a wild animal and more like he was... 

Like he was human.

“Okay…” she said softly, more to steel her own nerves than to calm Lance. She scooted herself to lie down against the smooth floor and lifted her injured leg to rest against his haunch, his thick fur soft to her sensitive, swollen skin. He let out a happy sound and then worked on licking the wound on his shoulder. She watched him work with an odd fascination and found herself drifting to sleep despite the occasional bumps along the ride.

She was exhausted. She was worried about Keith and whether or not he was alive, she was delirious and in pain from her broken ankle, she was scared about what would happen to them and worried about where they were going, and she was still apprehensive about Lance but mostly confused. There were so many burning questions searing inside her brain that it made her dizzy. She eventually found herself drifting unconscious despite the fear in the back of her mind that she needed to stay awake to defend herself if Lance tried to attack her.

She felt a strange reassurance that it wouldn’t happen.   
  



	6. Altruism

The next time Pidge awoke it was the middle of the night, the carriage still and the atmosphere silent. She remembered where she was and coupled with seeing Lance in his therion form and feeling the feline ears upon her head with a startled whimper, she fell into a panic.

Lance appeared to be deeply asleep but she was in her cursed ailuran form! She must have been in too much pain from her broken ankle to notice when her transformation took place.

Luckily it was easy to hide her tail under her dress (despite its fluffiness) so long as she didn't get too excited or startled, but her ears were a different matter entirely. They weren't nearly as long as Lance's in his sapien form but there was no hiding the giant auburn ears on top of her head. She hastily unbraided her mess of wavy hair and wondered if there was some type of intricate hairdo she could weave to hide them under.

Who was she kidding. She was doomed.

In the faint moonlight her eyes adjusted and she saw Lance's still figure pressed up against the side of their prison. She tried to think if there was a way she could sleep where he would not be able to see her face without "disturbing" her from her sleep. The only position that would work with that idea was to lay on top of Lance with her head directly behind his, but that would be impossible with her broken ankle and even then, without waking him up in the process.

 _So what if he finds out?_ she thought darkly. _At this rate I'm never going to be saved from my curse by Lord Morvok anyways._

Her pride won out and she laid back down to rest, her hair sprawled out to hide her ears the best she could, with one arm draped over the side of her head for good measure. It wasn't exactly comfortable but she would take a sore arm the next day over her rescuer and fellow captive finding out about her curse.

The next morning, her arm was sore.

Pidge woke up at her usual time when the sun rose and her body transformed. The carriage remained still, the only sound surrounding them the chirping of birds and the occasional snort of the horses outside. Their captors were still resting at their campsite but she had a feeling they would start moving soon. She was grateful Lance slept like a rock and only stirred awake once the carriage jolted forward. His eyes were bleary and held an annoyed expression that was the default for all felines.

Once he let out a big yawn and licked his lips, his eyes blinked a few times and he looked at Pidge with greater attention. He grunted and canted his head towards her, ears flicking. She interpreted this as the equivalent of "good morning" or "are you okay?"...it was difficult to tell.

"I'm doing okay..." Her eyes glanced over to the wounds upon his back that looked painfully raw. "Are you going to be alright?"

Lance closed his eyes and nodded assuredly. She could only imagine he'd been through something similar or far worse to answer so quickly and confidently. He didn't seem distressed by his injuries in the slightest.

It became easier the more she interacted with Lance in this feral form of his. She kept waiting for him to hiss or snarl at her or try to lash out with his claws, but he was incredibly placid and gentle. It felt so unnatural to her, after so many horror stories and nightmares as a child. But the more she spoke with him, even if it felt heavily one-sided, the more she understood him and her heart didn't pound as heavily with each interaction.

"Do you have any plans on how to get us out of this?" she asked softly, confident he would be able to hear her with his sensitive ears. She wasn't expecting much for an answer, but maybe a hopeful expression or something mischievous in his sapphire eyes.

Lance made - what she could only assume was - an uncomfortable growl, his whiskers twitching. He stretched his paws and she saw his claws unsheathe for the first time, ten deadly white daggers glinting in the early morning light. As soon as they appeared they were gone, but he continued to occasionally flex his paws to have the claws peek out, as if he were anxious.

"I don't think you can just... claw your way out of this," she said hesitantly, never taking her eyes off his paws.

He chuffed what sounded like a protest, as if he were challenging her with a "why not?" His tail flicked up before settling back around his haunches.

Pidge frowned. "Can you... can you change back?"

Lance shook his head. What was that supposed to mean?

"Ever?"

He let out a moan and rolled his eyes, giving her what looked like a deadpan expression.

"Okay okay, of course you can change back, but obviously not right now for whatever reason..." She let out a huff of frustration as she tried to figure out answers to her plethora of questions regarding her companion who couldn't do much more than answer with a yes or no. "Is it because of whatever they gave you that forced you to shift?"

He shook his head again.

"Is it because you don't want to?"

He hesitated, his eyes narrowing but he eventually shook his head.

"It's not because you don't want to and it's because you can't... can you only shift on full moons or something?"

Lance threw his head back, his ears pinned flat against his head as he let out a snarled snort of absolute annoyance.

"Alright, that was probably a dumb question." She bit her lower lip and stared at the ground in thought. Before she could think of another question to ask him he softly nudged her knee with his paw to get her to look up at him. He then began panting with his bright pink tongue out, then closed his mouth and gave her a look, ears perked expectantly.

"Oh, umm... you're... tired?"

He slowly nodded as if she were on the right track.

And then it clicked in her mind and she felt dumb for not coming to the conclusion sooner. She felt the same way every time she transformed at dawn and dusk, and the only change in her body was a tail and different ears, but when Lance changed his entire body transformed - even down to his feline tail and ears since they were stretched to fit his much larger form.

"You're exhausted. Shifting takes a lot of energy."

Lance nodded, giving her a brief purr.

"I should have known... there's no way you can change back so quickly. And you're going to need all the strength you can get if we are to escape."

His eyes fell downwards, his ears drooping in tandem. She was slowly learning how to read his body language and she could tell he wasn't tired, but rather he was hopeless. Lance didn't believe they would be able to escape, or maybe he felt responsible. He was supposed to rescue her after all, even if he was doing so out of following a command from Lord Morvok instead of out of the interest of his own heart. She couldn't imagine what kind of guilt he must be feeling. Even though Lance was far from the human knight in shining armor she was expecting, she had no doubt he would do everything in his power to keep her safe.

"Lance?" She felt guilt like all those years ago with Allura - realizing her judgment and disdain stemmed from the wrong places. She resented Allura for the longest time, treated her poorly and shut her out whenever she tried to console her. It took her many years to realize Allura was just as cursed as she, forced to stay watch at a tower and prevent anyone from rescuing her. The same guilt pooled in her stomach as she came to understand Lance and it made her feel sick. Even if everything she heard about ailurans was true and they were all violent, bloodthirsty creatures, Lance was clearly _different_.

He looked at her with a blank expression, waiting for her to continue. She wasn't sure what words to say and her mouth ran dry. Emotions burned within her chest but she didn't know how to translate those feelings into words.

"I...I was wrong," she started, fiddling with strands of her long hair between her fingers as her words jumbled out in a nervous mess. "I kept thinking - _believing -_ that you would eventually attack me, that your...f-feral instincts would take over, or something, and I felt like I was doomed being stuck in here with you, but I..." Lance laid his chin down to rest between his paws, his ears pinned back and his brows lowered. She took a deep breath to steel herself so she could continue. "I-I'm sorry! It was a-a nervous reaction or instinct or defensive mechanism of some sort, but I was scared...I was so scared...of you. But that was stupid of me, because I saw that you were looking out for me and my well-being even though you had your own wounds to worry about and..."

Lance's expression softened, his big blue eyes blinking as he slowly stood up and moved closer to her, settling down low to the ground so his head was by her knees. He nudged her good leg with his cheek and closed his eyes as he rested beside her. Pidge could only interpret his actions as his way of accepting her apology.

"And I'm sorry things ended up the way they did..." she said softly, her chest burning with grief and anger. "You were just trying to rescue me and deliver me safely...I will do whatever I can within my power to stop them from hurting you." She knew it didn't mean much, but there was a chance her authority as royalty would be able to play a part in bargaining for their safety.

The least she could do to offer comfort was stroke her hand along his head, feeling the thick, brown striped fur between her fingers. His ears relaxed and she could hear a faint purr rumbling within his chest. He leaned his head against her thigh and she continued to stroke his fur, a brief moment of calm for the both of them before the inevitable storm hit when those doors would open once more. A silent trust passed between them and Pidge felt a wave of courage wash over her.

Lance was no longer her rescuer and she a princess to be saved. They were in this together.


	7. The Path to Destruction

Lance had a few ideas on what the bandits were going to do to them when they arrived at their destination and he didn’t like the sound of any of them. He was fairly confident he could save himself from whatever bind he got in, but he was more concerned about the princess being taken away where he couldn’t protect her.

They traveled for most of the day and Pidge rested while he eventually dozed off as well after thoroughly cleaning his wounds. They would need all the strength they could afford and it wasn’t as if they could have much of a conversation anyways. He could tell the princess was becoming more and more accustomed to him in this form, less scared but still on her guard. If she wanted to survive whatever would come next, she would have to trust him. He hoped deep down that she could.

She was at least comfortable enough to lean up against his shoulder, giving him the occasional rub behind his ears or along his neck. He purred happily each time she did so, and he hoped this exchange was what decreased her fear of him.

When the carriage stopped it was late afternoon with only a few hours left until sundown. Lance's ears perked up and he adjusted his stance into a crouching position, waiting for whatever the open doors to their prison would bring. Though Pidge could do little more than sit up, he could feel her body tense behind him, preparing for the inevitable as well.

The latch unlocked loudly and Lance launched himself towards the door, ramming his shoulder into the metal and knocking some bandits to the ground. Though he caught a few people unaware, they were prepared for exactly this - before he could so much as exit the carriage there was already a rope lassoed around his neck, pulling him off balance to try and make him lose his footing. He instead went with the motion to lunge at the man holding the rope, but before his claws could reach him another rope found place around his neck, tightening and pulling him backwards into the ground. Pain shot up his back when he landed hard on his still healing injury, his vision now filled with stars.

He looked back at Pidge who called out his name as she struggled to run forward to his aid. He hissed at her to stay back as he tried to get up on his feet but another lasso pulled his forepaw away before he could slice himself free of the ropes.

There was no way Pidge could run away, no matter what kind of distraction he caused. He tried rearing up onto his hind legs to try and fling the men holding him down but as one bandit lost his footing two more took his place to tie him down further. When he was finally yanked to the ground, his limbs pulled in different directions so he could not move, one of them placed the tip of a sword to his neck. He was huge and he was galra, a race primarily characterized by their purple skin. He had large ears similar to his own and cruel yellow eyes. Despite how powerless he was, Lance still displayed his array of fangs and glared daggers into the apparent leader.

"You," he said in an amused tone, "are a  _ fighter.  _ You will certainly bring us some much needed entertainment."

_ "Stop this." _

Lance could barely turn his head thanks to his position but he saw Pidge was  _ standing,  _ albeit holding the wall for support, at the very edge of the carriage. Her eyes were fire and there was a certain aura about her he had never seen in her stature before, and it was far more threatening considering her ankle was broken.

"I am princess Katherine Presea Holt of Olkarion. I demand you let him go at once!"

The leader looked up at her with tired eyes as if he were bored with her presence. "And where might your crown be, princess of Olkarion?"

Her expression did not waver in the slightest. "The absence of my crown does not remove my authority. You must release him."

He gave her a dark grin, his eyes practically sparkling.  _ "No." _

Pidge kicked and screamed when she was seized by more bandits and Lance snarled in protest. He tugged as hard as he could but he could not move, he was being pulled in too many different directions to do anything.

"Lock this one up in one of the empty stalls. And let's give our princess the  _ royal  _ treatment she deserves," he ordered to his men before sheathing his sword and turning away.

Lance was led to the stalls, giant metal individual cells that held other captured ailurans. He was allowed to walk but the ropes remained to pull him back down if necessary so there was no point in resisting. Once the bandits left aside from the ones who guarded the stalls, he spoke to the closest ailuran.

_ "So what is this place, exactly?" _ Though anyone else would only hear feline sounds, fellow ailurans could understand each other when in their therion forms. The one he spoke to was another male with similar striped markings but in various shades of gray.

_ "A tomb,"  _ he grunted.  _ "Sendak is a renowned hunter. He sells ailuran pelts but not until he has us fight each other to the death first for the sake of entertainment." _

_ "He... he what!?" _

_ "Supposedly the champion of the tournaments gets set free. If you don't brutally die by your own kind, you get to kill enough of them so you can live the rest of your life in guilt." _

Lance tried to wrap his mind around the cruelty of the situation, his heart heavy with disbelief and utter disgust. He tried to keep his fear at bay by pacing back and forth in the small space his cell provided, but it didn’t help that his mind wandered to the thoughts that he might fight members of his clan or his own family. How many of them had died by Sendak’s hands?

_ “What's your name? What clan are you from?”  _ The other ailuran seemed to read his mind.

_ “Lance. Well, I used to be in clan Verado. But now I’m clanless.” _

He seemed to understand and didn’t press any further questions.  _ “I'm Blaytz. I don’t think I’ve heard of that clan, but this is only my fourth day here. I’m actually clanless as well.” _

It made sense that most ailurans here would be clanless since they would be easier to hunt down and capture. Lance felt the briefest relief that this other ailuran didn’t recognize his clan’s name, but that didn’t guarantee they haven’t been here in the past. 

_ “How many of our kind have you killed?”  _ It was the question Lance wanted to avoid but it burned too strongly into his mind to go unanswered. 

The silver ailuran’s ears drooped, his green eyes gone hard.  _ “So far only one. Sometimes they have us fight wild beasts instead of each other. But… she’s still dead because of me.” _

_ “You fought a female?!” _

_ “They don’t care about gender. We’re all nothing but animals to them. At least… she seemed to be at peace when she looked at me with her dying breath. She was here much longer than me so I can’t imagine how many she’s had to kill.” _

What had he gotten into? This was some freaky cult he could not escape and even if he survived a week or so until he had enough strength to transform back into his sapien form, he would probably be attacked and forced to transform back anyways. He had a better chance of escaping in his therion form but even then the chances were slim. There were simply too many people in this organization and too many guards to sneak past. 

And he still had to save Pidge.

He wondered if Keith was alive. 

The hopeful part of his soul wished that Nyma was putting on an act this entire time and would set him free in the middle of the night, but he knew he couldn’t rely on such a happenstance. He learned from a young age there was no one he could rely on but himself, but this time around he wasn’t sure there was much in his power to change their fates. 

Sendak’s words of giving Pidge the  _ royal treatment _ still felt like bile in his mouth. He knew Sendak didn’t have any good intentions with those words, not with the way he said them mockingly with a menacing glint in his eyes. 

_ "Do you think we'll have to fight tonight?" _ he asked as he observed a few other ailurans in cells further down.  _ "They also caught a princess with me so I'm not sure if that'll change things." _

_ "A princess? Is she ailuran?" _

_ "No no, she's human. I… was supposed to protect her." _

Blaytz made a sympathetic hum.  _ "When it's only you against a bunch of bandits there's not much you can do. I'm sorry." _

_ "I know, but… I feel like there's still something I should have done differently." _

Lance was left alone with his worrying thoughts the rest of the evening, his ears ever attentive for any hints or indications about Pidge. Luckily they're fed a slab of meat that a stoic galran guard flings into each of their cells, and Lance is happy to have some food in his stomach, especially if he has to fight for his life later that night. A little while after the sun has set, his ears perk up with sounds of a female ailuran and several bandits yelling commands to each other. 

_ "Is there a fight going on?" _

_ "Oh no you'll know when that's happening," _ Blaytz said.  _ "No I think they just caught another. Two ailurans in one night, Sendak is going to be wild." _

Moments later an ailuran was shoved into the empty cell next to Lance and she was  _ tiny - _ still huge compared to humans but by ailuran standards she looked like a teenager even though he could smell she was an adult. She had light golden brown fur with rosary spots and a creamy underside. She looked incredibly nervous and jumpy which was to be expected in their current situation but Lance could smell there was some other kind of underlying fear present.

_ “Hey, what’s your name?”  _ Lance asked.

_ “Uhh… uh A-Allura,”  _ she stammered. She kept turning her gaze away and pressing up against the opposite side of her cell as if she were scared of  _ him  _ as well.

_ “Allura? Huh, interesting. I know a dragon named Allura.”  _

_ “You know a dragon?!”  _ Blaytz asked with perked ears. 

Allura visibly tensed at the mention of the dragon. Lance’s whiskers twitched before he turned to Blaytz.  _ “The dragon was guarding my princess. She was actually quite nice. I would have enjoyed talking with her more if she weren’t magically obligated to obliterate anyone that tries to rescue the princess.”  _

_ “Wow, you rescued a princess from a dragon?”  _ Blaytz was ecstatic at this news, as if he just found out Lance was some sort of demigod.  _ “That’s incredible!” _ He leaned a little further to better look at Allura.  _ “Could you tell if a fight is about to happen? What’s going on in the colosseum?” _

She looked at him with wide eyes, her gaze flicking nervously between Blaytz and Lance.  _ “I-I don’t know.” _

Her voice sounded familiar but Lance knew he hasn’t seen any female ailurans in years. If there was someone he recognized it would have been someone from his clan, someone from his childhood. Why this stranger reeked familiarity was a question he couldn’t answer.  _ “Where are you from?”  _ he asked, hoping to get some semblance of why he recognized her.

_ “From? Me? Umm… nowhere, really.” _

_ “Oh are you clanless as well?”  _ Blaytz asked.  _ “It’s okay, both of us happen to be clanless too.” _

Suddenly there was a loud commotion of someone yelling something and a roar of cheers and shouts erupted nearby. Blaytz was suddenly filled with panic, his ears flat and his tail tucked between his legs.

_ “They  _ are _ doing a fight tonight,”  _ he moaned, his voice dripping with disgust and dread.

Lance should have felt a healthier dose of fear but he was too numb with shock when a bunch of men, both human and galra, came to pull him out of his cell. He fought against them the best he could but it was no use. He was dragged into an arena where another ailuran was being pulled by several ropes from the opposite end. The seats were filled with bandits, cheering with excitement and fervor, while Sendak sat at a designated spot as if he were royalty. He saw no sign of Pidge sitting near Sendak as he was expecting and that only made him more worried. Had they already “disposed” of her?

He couldn’t focus on the fact that his ropes were released nor dodge the slice of claws across the side of his face when the fight started. His opponent was thankfully another male but he was considerably smaller than him. The black ailuran had many scars including a missing ear and eye, and Lance had to wonder how long he had been fighting to survive here. The solid black coat painfully reminded him of Keith - he was about the same size, too. 

As Lance dodged the ailuran’s attacks, he took better note of his surroundings. The arena was sunk deeper than the ring of seats, keeping him trapped within high walls. Even if he managed to scale the stone wall somehow, there were archers in the seats ready to shoot him down. The entrances on either side where he and the other ailuran entered had steel lattice gates. There was no way he could escape out of here, not without outside help. 

He didn’t want to fight the other ailuran, and despite his attempts to talk with him he only continued snarling and swiping his claws. Lance wasn’t certain if his opponent didn’t care to talk, somehow  _ couldn’t _ talk because he had been forced to be ailuran for so long, or if he simply did not want to get emotionally attached whatsoever to someone he was forced to slaughter. It was easier to kill someone if you didn’t even know their name.

He couldn’t do this.

But he could only dodge the attacks for so long.

Dodges turned into self-defense strikes and self-defense strikes turned into offensive lunges. It was a slow and long battle, both of them exhausted and heavily bleeding, panting for breath. Neither of them dared to land a killing blow and it seemed whoever ended up winning this fight it would be purely from endurance. 

Lance didn’t want to kill an innocent victim. 

But he still had to save Pidge. 

* * *

Pidge could not believe how unfortunately lucky this night had been. 

When she was thrown and locked into some bedroom there was little she could do to go about escaping with a broken ankle and her wrists tied behind her back. But when the sun set it was not only time for her curse to transform her but it decided tonight she was going to transform into the therion ailuran form. Most of the time she switched to the sapien form, sprouting only ears and a tail, but once in a rare while she would take on the shape of a natural ailuran. She hoped this would be her ace and she might be able to do something to help herself and Lance escape, but before she could do much she was noticed (she was large in this form, after all) and captured, thrown into a cell right next to none other than Lance. 

She wasn’t sure if she should be relieved or disappointed that he couldn’t recognize it was her. But then again he had no logical reason to believe an ailuran could be her. Her ankle also painfully reset in the transformation so it was no longer broken, but she thought for sure her slip up of using Allura’s name would have been obvious. Lance was easily recognizable in his therion form (though she was used to seeing him with cat ears and a tail already, but there were other characteristics plainly distinguishable) so she reckoned it had to be fairly obvious for her as well with her smaller size, her eyes the same color, and her fur matching the color of her hair. 

When Lance was taken away she learned from the ailuran Blaytz that it meant he was about to fight to the death. She didn’t know if he was coming back. All she could do was listen to the roars of the crowd and try to distinguish which distant caterwauls of pain were coming from Lance. 

When the sun rose, she was going to get all of them out of here.

The fight lasted what seemed like forever. When it sounded like it was finished, Lance wasn’t brought back to his cage for a long time.

_ “Do… do they take the winners somewhere else?” _ she asked in a panic.

_ “No, though they might have taken him to a different cell if he is alive,” _ Blaytz answered.  _ “It’s not like they care which cell we’re in.”  _ Just before Pidge was going to ask a different question he spoke again, slightly alleviating her worries.  _ “If he’s injured real bad they might be working on healing him. If Sendak really likes an ailuran’s pelt, he’ll give them better treatment. He might actually want to keep Lance around solely for his looks.” _

_ “How do you mean?” _

_ “Dark brown ailurans with blue eyes are rather hard to come by. Lance might be more useful to him to be sold alive than as a fur pelt. Or kept as his own pet.”  _ He twitched a shoulder which could be read as a shrug.  _ “You might be so fortunate too, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an adult as small as you.” _

Pidge flattened her ears.  _ “Umm… fortunate? How is that fortunate?” _

_ “Well… it’s all poison no matter how you look at it. But would you rather brutally die or get sold to someone with a better chance to escape, or at least live a more comfortable life?” _

_ “But… as a slave,”  _ she said with a nervous flick of her tail.

Blaytz gave her a sad look.  _ “We aren’t exactly afforded choices here.” _

The time she waited wondering if Lance was dead or alive was agonizing. She tried to curl up on the ground and rest but her mind was spinning at all the possibilities and her heart was running a mile a minute. Twilight turned to darkness and though torches had to be lit for visibility, Pidge could see just fine with her enhanced senses. She was grateful to be out of Sendak's "royal treatment" for now but if she didn't escape by sunrise or if anyone saw her transform she had no idea what kind of trouble she would face. Gauging by the width of the cage bars, she was confident she could slip through once she was human again. It would be easy to unlock Lance and the other ailurans and rush out of the area. The only problem was she would be stark naked… she still hadn't figured out a way around that. 

Pidge perked up when she caught a whiff of a familiar scent and saw Lance was being brought back to his cell. She could tell he had fresh injuries but what shocked her more was the dark numbness in his eyes, as if a part of him had died. 

She never thought of it this way because she had preconceived notions towards ailurans - that they were monstrous and mindless - but she realized that tonight... she wasn't the only one who transformed.

Lance was turned into a murderer. 

* * *

Many times in his life Lance had tasted blood. He was familiar with crimson covering his hands or paws, whichever he had in that moment. It was necessary as a hunter, sustaining himself with meat, and it happened occasionally out of self-defense against those who looked upon his kind with fear and hate.

But never had he killed another person.

He had never seen the light fade from someone else's eyes.

He  _ had _ to save Pidge. He  _ had _ to save everyone. He couldn't let the other ailuran's death be meaningless, all for Sendak's sick sport. He couldn't bear the thought of Blaytz or Allura being next. He didn't even know the black-furred ailuran's name. Why did he have to be the one to survive? Why did he have to deliver the final blow that would keep his opponent's heart from ever beating again? 

He was led away to another area after the fight where his legs were tied up to four posts, his neck lassoed and secured to the two posts by his front legs as well so he could not scratch or bite anyone as they worked on him. He was too tired to fight at this point anyway, exhausted from the arena and from general resistance of Sendak's men. He was trying to imagine what cruel or humiliating thing they would do to him next now that he was immovable, but he was pleasantly surprised when buckets of water were dumped on top of him and a few bandits worked on sterilizing his wounds and cleaning the blood out of his fur. Despite the pain of his injuries as they were cleaned and stitched up, he felt himself relaxing as he was treated with care. It was a strange contrast to the past twenty-four hours.

After he was dried off he was placed in a nearby cage and given a far nicer meal than the one before the fight. He stared at the fine cut of meat with flattened ears, his mouth already salivating at the decadent scent. So this was how they kept the captured ailurans fighting - by means of incentive. Part of him was cautious, wondering if the food had more potions like the one that forced him to shift, but he ultimately decided he needed the nutrition if he planned to save Pidge and escape. He also figured if he didn’t eat the meal they might force him to or give him something worse. 

He was eventually brought back to his cage between Blaytz and Allura and he was too tired to do anything but lay down and bury his head between his paws. He could hear the other ailurans speaking, probably asking him questions, but he didn’t want to talk. He was too spent from the events of the day. All he could do was close his eyes and try to process everything, try to rest and heal from wounds both physical and mental.

But he couldn't rest, not when his mind kept replaying the ailuran's final moments. Not when he had no idea where Pidge could be and if she was alright, if she was even still alive. Not when his body ached and strung with deep claw marks and bites. 

And yet somehow, sheer exhaustion finally took over. 

When his eyes opened next, it felt like he was being greeted by an angel. 

Soft morning rays bathed around her long honey locks to the point where it looked like she was glowing. Her hands tenderly held the sides of his face, her expression concerned as her golden eyes shone with a sense of urgency. Her soft pink lips voiced his name, softly at first and then gradually louder, again and again and again…

_ "Lance!" _

He finally perked up, blinking the sleep from his eyes. It was Pidge. Somehow, someway, she was here in his cage, kneeling in front of him as she held his face. She was no longer in her elegant green dress but what appeared to be some kind of sheet fitted with a rope around her waist. He had so many questions but now that he was awake she was tugging for him to move along.

"Come on, we don't have much time!" she said in a hushed whisper.

The door to his cell was open. Pidge must have unlocked it. From the way he saw her fight the bandits when they were first surrounded in the forest he could only guess she somehow acquired the keys on her own. She rushed out and unlocked the door to Blaytz's cell and then moved down onto the next. Lance saw Allura was long gone and slowly pulled himself up onto his paws to leave his cage at the same time as Blaytz.

_ "Looks like your princess came to rescue you," _ the silver ailuran said with a good-natured purr.

It was too early for jokes. _ "Oh shut up." _

He followed down the corridor as Pidge freed ailurans, most of them rushing out with soft thank yous but some of them spoke of revenge. Pidge had good intentions but he feared where this could end up. He ran to catch up with her as she released a ginger striped ailuran.

_ "We need to get out of here!" _ he urged but then remembered that she wouldn't understand him like this. He also just realized she wasn't limping… did they heal her ankle?

It would only be a matter of time until the freed ailurans attacked and security would increase, hindering their escape. Some of them wanted to get back at their captors instead of quietly taking their chance to freedom and Lance couldn't blame them. If he had the energy to fight and the assurance that Pidge was somewhere safe, he would have tried to tear out a few throats himself.

As Pidge unlocked another cage the brown ailuran inside sprung forward, slamming the iron bars against Pidge and knocking her to the ground. Before the ailuran could rake her claws down on her, Lance slammed into the ailuran and knocked her to the ground. When they both rolled back up onto their paws, Lance was frozen. Flashes of the arena came back, causing him to stiffen in fear. He couldn't react in time to avoid the claws that dug into his neck.

Pidge cried out his name as the offending ailuran swiped again. He tried to think of something to say to make her stop but he couldn't think, he couldn't act. All he could do was take the hits and wonder why - why did she want to attack Pidge and then him when all they were trying to do was free her?

Another force slammed into the ailuran and Lance got his footing again, his head spinning from the attacks. He shook his head and saw Blaytz had pinned the brown ailuran down.

_ "Go! Save your princess! I'll take care of the others!" _

Lance huffed there, still in a daze. He couldn't just leave Blaytz, not when he could hear bandits approaching to apprehend them. Surely they would lock him back up in his cage and he would be stuck here, all because Lance couldn't get his act together and fight back.

_ "Lance! Hurry!" _

His pleading words and Pidge's small hands reaching out to touch his shoulder were what snapped him back to reality. His chest hurt and he ached with a heavy nausea that made him want to retch. Despite the pain of leaving, he couldn't risk Pidge's life when she somehow worked herself free and risked that freedom to save him as well. In all honesty he was not expecting her to come and save him when saving herself came at such a risky price.

He nudged his muzzle between her knees and flung her over his head to land on his back. He chirped at her as a warning to hold on before he ran out of the forest as fast as he could. Pidge had some trouble hanging on at first but she eventually fell into the rhythm of his moving shoulder blades. He narrowly dodged a few attacks from bandits and even barreled into a few as he escaped. They were so close. They had to make it. They had to survive. They lost too much to get this far only to be captured again. Pidge had been so close to freedom so many times… he  _ had _ to ensure she escaped her prison. He couldn’t bear the thought of her suffering any longer, waiting for a prince in shining armor to come and save her, the very prince in shining armor he couldn’t be for her...

"Lance... Lance!"

Pidge's voice was soft and earnest, increasing in volume. "Lance stop!"

His aching legs slowed down to a stop, his limbs burning as he collapsed into the tall grass, breathing heavily. How long did he run? How long did Pidge urge him to stop before he came to his senses?

Everything was a blur and he could barely breathe. Pidge carefully got off of him and knelt in front of his face, cradling it within her embrace. She stroked his head tenderly as he melted into her presence, exhausted from everything and finally feeling like he could let go and fall apart...

So long as she held him together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and thoughts are appreciated! ^^


	8. Perceiving Freedom

_Bonding is a strange science_.

_Fear and pain are powerful persuaders._

_They link us stronger than the ties of blood._

Pidge mused to herself as she looked up at the starry night sky. She could never imagine herself in the position she is now but she recognized her paradigm on the world was shifting. Only a week ago she would have assumed Lance was evil and that he couldn’t be trusted. Only a week ago she would have never shared her curse with a stranger. Only a week ago she would have taken any chance at escaping Sendak’s camp even if it meant leaving everyone else behind. 

She was different now.

She couldn’t quite explain how it happened but Lance felt like someone she’s known forever like a childhood friend. She barely knew anything about him and yet she trusted him with her life. And as he slept, still in his massive feline form, she didn’t bother making camp somewhere else or hiding as her curse changed her. She stayed right by his side, unafraid to trust him with her biggest secret. 

_Of course he’s sleeping like… well. Like a cat._

Part of her hoped he would wake before sunrise so he would see her ears and tail and know, but at the same time she was content leaning up against his side, comfortable against his soft fur and listening to the soothing rhythm of his purring breaths. She relished in the peaceful night after such traumatizing events. She couldn’t even imagine what he must be going through, what cancerous thoughts were eating at his mind. She still felt an awful bile in her stomach for assuming the worst of him when it was painfully obvious that killing the other ailuran completely broke his heart.

 _Sendak will rue the day_ , she thought. _When I’m back in a position of power that will be my first matter of business._ Her ears droop when she remembers that Lance was originally supposed to deliver her to Lord Morvok. Before it seemed so appealing to finally be rescued from her castle of imprisonment and that breaking her curse was within the horizon - even despite the fact that Lord Morvok was a complete stranger! - but now she wasn’t so sure. Was a screw knocked loose from the events of last night? Why on earth was she complacent with staying cursed and remaining by an ailuran’s side?

Everything became different with her increased knowledge.

Ailurans weren’t inherently malicious. 

And there were fates far worse than her curse.

She settled into Lance’s dark fur and closed her eyes to sleep. She prayed no one would find them and that Lance could get the rest he sorely needed. She hoped he could learn to not blame himself for the other ailuran’s death but she had a feeling it would weigh on his heart for the rest of his life.

She hoped she could help him see differently, just as he had helped her to change.

* * *

Lance’s nose twitched to the smell of… was that _bacon?_

He opened his eyes to warm sunlight. It was well past morning and though it was easier to sleep in his therion form he couldn’t believe he slept in so late, especially considering that Sendak’s men might be on their trail. What if Pidge was kidnapped again and he was powerless to save her? He couldn’t afford to slip up so badly again.

When he pulled himself up onto his paws he groaned at the aching protests of all his joints. He was still healing from his wounds in the arena and everything felt horribly sore. He anticipated it would take even longer for him to be able to shift back to his sapien form because of this which meant more fun times playing charades with Pidge.

“Did you sleep well?” she asked from where she sat by the nearby fire, cooking meat on a stick.

After a painful but well needed stretch and yawn, he sat closer to her and chuffed. It wasn’t a committal sound but not fully negative either. He remembered something pleasant about his dream but he couldn't quite pinpoint the source. It almost felt like he was back in the comfort of his clan with his family, or perhaps entwined with a lover. Whatever it was, the memory was fleeting and only a vague warmth deep inside his chest.

Pidge frowned sympathetically in one corner of her mouth. She was still dressed in the strange makeshift bed sheet with a rope and he sorely hoped it didn’t slip off her small frame since it seemed terribly unreliable. He wanted to ask her how she escaped and what happened to make her lose her emerald dress but there was only so much he could convey with his feline sounds and movements.

He eyed the meat and looked back at her, raising his brows and chuffing again but questioningly.

“Oh this?” She seemed to be getting the hang of his communication as she pointed to the slices of bacon wrapped around sticks she positioned over the fire. She gave him a mischievous grin and it was a look he had never seen on her but it felt so natural on her features. “I stole it from a passing merchant. I actually wanted to see if I could snatch some clothes but I… got distracted.”

Lance’s eyes widened, his ears flattening against his skull. _A princess stole from a merchant?!_

“It was the most exhilarating thing I’ve ever done, let me tell you,” she said casually as she pulled in one of the sticks to take off a piece of bacon. “And don’t worry, he seemed to be a thriving merchant, not someone who was scraping by. I would never steal from the poor.” 

He still growled softly to show his disapproval. 

She sighed, holding out the piece of bacon to him. “Goodness you sound like my mother. Or Allura. I can’t even imagine what either of them would say about my current apparel.” 

He snorted and took the bacon from her hand as carefully as he could so as not to scare her. Her tiny hand would have barely covered his nose and although he knew she was petite even when he was in his sapien form, now she seemed so fragile and small. He was afraid that just nudging her the wrong way or with too much force would break her. 

Though the bacon was delicious it was nothing to sate his appetite. She kept offering him more but he let her have most of it since it would actually fill her stomach better. He stood up and moaned at her and made sure she stayed put before leaving the clearing to head into the forest, after a few yes or no questions she understood he was going to hunt.

It didn’t take him long to catch a deer, his instincts doing most of the work for him. It was a scrawny doe but enough to satisfy his needs. Before he could dig into the kill he felt his limbs stiffen. The blood reminded him of the arena. He stood there staring at the carcass for too long, his heart aching at the memories as they resurfaced. He lost his appetite but he didn’t want his kill to go to waste and he needed the energy to continue healing, to keep Pidge safe. After he ate as much of it as he could muster, he picked up the deer’s skin within his mouth and brought it back to the princess, dropping it in front of her.

Her brows furrowed and she looked up at him with an expression of disgust. “Wha-? Oh. _Ohhhh_. You want me to use this to make clothing?”

He nodded, his tail happily curling from side to side.

“Well, I don’t have any sewing supplies, and I don’t know how to… make a bloody pelt into something I could wear,” she admitted. “Besides I’d rather wear… you know. _Silk_ or something.”

Lance rolled his eyes but didn’t take any offense to her complaints. He should have known better that a princess wouldn’t want to suddenly dress like a barbarian. He crouched down so she could climb on his back and indicated with his head for her to get on.

“We ready to go now? Do you know where to go?”

He gave her a non-committal moan as she climbed up and got situated. He had a general idea of where they were but he would need to find a town or landmark to know for certain. Their best bet was to head into the forest until they found a river, then follow it until they reached civilization. Then he would be able to figure out where they had ended up and which direction would lead them back to Duloc. The problem was it would be difficult considering he was in his therion form and Pidge was barely modest. It would be tricky for either of them to waltz into any kind of establishment. 

Perhaps they needed to focus on getting Pidge some clothes first.

* * *

Some days while trapped in the castle Pidge couldn’t wait to go back to her princessly duties. She ached to attend a ball or a diplomatic dinner or a coronation ceremony for a neighboring kingdom. She normally hated stuffy formal gatherings - the dresses she wore were too uncomfortable, the people were too loud, and the social interactions were too nerve wracking. All she wanted in those situations was to go back to her room and read a book, but after years of having solitude and books she realized how much she missed people. Allura helped to fill that void the best she could, but it wasn’t quite the same. She missed her family, she yearned to be with a group of friends, to be in the company of many she loved and cherished. Instead she spent many lonely nights crying herself to sleep.

Pidge never knew what freedom tasted like. Her entire life she was either a princess, constrained and expected to do anything and everything a certain way, or locked in a tower with nothing but books and a dragon to keep her company. When Lance first rescued her she felt like nothing more than a parcel to be delivered, but now after the capture and escape from Sendak’s camp, Pidge finally drank the satisfying relief and excitement of being free.

Before she felt like she was obligated to marry Lord Morvok and that breaking her curse was the only way for her to truly be free.

Then why was it that she could feel so emancipated when she was still bound by the laws of her curse?

Perhaps the curse wasn’t as horrible as she believed it to be.

Perhaps someone could manage to love her despite it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one is a bit shorter than usual but I felt like writing these two owo  
> Comments are always appreciated! Let me know what you think!


	9. Seeing Trouble

Allura was ready to die of boredom.

She thought a few days to herself would be nice - she would finally have some alone time. But after the third day she was already getting stir-crazy. She slept in Pidge’s bed since she was gone, choosing to mostly be in her humanoid form. Even though she was certain she would _feel_ it when the curse broke, she kept checking the end of the bridge (which she had already repaired) to continually find the magical barrier still in place. When Pidge's rescuer, Lance, spoke with her he said he was taking her to a noble who was dying to marry her and that she would live a comfortable life in a few days. 

She could tell his words were genuine - an inherent ability found in all dragons - but she also knew he was lying about what he was, or at least he was to Pidge. Lance didn’t introduce himself as human to Allura but he was certainly trying to hide the fact he wasn’t. She hoped he had good intentions and perhaps only wanted to keep from scaring the princess.

Yet it had been more than a few days and the curse was still in place.

She had to wonder if the ailuran had ulterior motives or if he somehow got her princess into danger. He seemed earnest so she hoped it was the latter and that Lance would be strong enough to protect her. There wasn’t much she could do besides sit and wait for her to find true love.

For Pidge - stubborn Princess Katherine Holt - to make herself vulnerable and open her heart up to love...

_Oh quiznak I’m going to be waiting a while._

* * *

“That filthy ailuran sure is taking his dear sweet time! How far away was Princess Katherine’s tower?” Morvok asked as he paced the interrogation room.

“Ehm… about two days travel?” Coran answered from the mirror, counting on disembodied gloved hands. 

“He should have been back with her after four days. It’s been _eight!_ That’s double!!”

“Excellent math, your majesty.” 

“Well where are they?! Show me where they are!” 

“We’ve been over this Lord Morvok, you have to phrase it correctly-”

The short man groaned loudly in frustration. “Magic mirror on the wall, show me Princess Katherine Holt.”

Coran arched one eyebrow.

 _“Please,”_ Morvok scoffed.

Coran nodded and his head disappeared, the surface of the mirror swirling until it came into focus once more and showed the princess except it didn’t look like the Katherine he recognized from past images the mirror showed him. Her hair was loose and wild, no crown upon her head, and she was barely dressed in some horribly filthy cloth. And she rode on top of a savage _ailuran_ as if it were a horse. 

Morvok gasped indignantly. “How dare that horrible beast! He has stolen my princess from me and corrupted her! She looks like a dirty peasant, not the elegant royalty she’s meant to be! Where is this?”

Coran’s voice sounded even though the image of the ailuran and princess continued to run. “I do not know, I can only show the visuals, sir.” 

“Oh oh, wait!” Morvok pointed even though the only ones in the room were the guards at the door. The two in the mirror halted to a stop at the edge of the trees, overlooking a vast lake. “That’s lake Karthuli! I know precisely where they are!” He snapped his fingers at the guards, never taking his eyes off the mirror. “Fetch me the general, quick!” 

He watched the two in the mirror attempt to converse until his general arrived, bowing with a fist over his heart. “Lord Morvok,” he greeted.

“General Throk, I have a very important mission for you,” Morvok commanded with a mischievous grin as Throk stood to his full height. “You are to take a force of troops to Karthuli lake and capture the ailuran and Princess Katherine.” He pointed to the mirror to show his general. “Kill the ailuran or keep him alive, I don’t care. His punishment for stealing my princess is death either way.” 

“Yes sir,” Throk said. “I will head out with my men immediately.”

“Excellent.” Morvok tapped his fingertips together gleefully. “I will become a king within a fortnight.” 

* * *

They were at the _lake._

_Karthuli lake._

Lance couldn’t imagine any worse scenario. 

“Woah, wait, what’s wrong?” Pidge asked, dismounting him. Though he couldn’t talk he was making distressed sounds and his body language gave away his fear. She made a groan of annoyance. “Urgh you can’t answer any of that. Let me think of yes-no questions.”

Lance sat down on his haunches, softly growling as he scanned the towns that lined the edges of the lake in the distance. 

“Are there bad people that live here?”

Lance shook his head.

“Is the lake itself bad?”

He hesitated, his whiskers twitching before shaking his head.

“Is the location we’re at bad?”

He nodded his head enthusiastically. 

“Okay so it’s based on where we’re located… are we super far from where we need to go?”

Lance rolled a shoulder to give a middle ground answer. They were at least four days travel away from Duloc if not more, but it was more about their positioning that would make traveling towards Duloc difficult if not impossible. 

A lightbulb seemed to go off as her eyes suddenly shone and her brows rose. “Are we landlocked? Are we stuck in a certain area?”

He nods his head vigorously. He unsheathed one claw and started scribbling on the dirt, hoping she would make sense of his map. She was a princess, she had to at least know the basics of cartography. Though he wasn’t as dextrous with his paws he didn’t have to draw anything too complex.

She crouched down and started pointing at parts. “Is this the lake?” He nodded. “And these are mountain ranges and… oh. There’s a pass here. You’re saying we can’t go through?”

He shook his head. Teladuv Pass was one of the busiest routes for merchants and somehow they ended up on the wrong side of Karthuli lake. They were on the side which was occupied by one of the human kingdoms, Diabazaal. Sendak’s camp was set up in the perfect location - squat in the center of a human kingdom that loathed ailurans. Any ailuran who escaped his camp would want to stay in the forest to avoid being hunted by humans, only to be hunted and captured again by Sendak’s men. He had to wonder how on earth their captors were able to sneak him through the pass but then realized they probably had an insider or someone who was easily bribed who allowed them through the pass. Everything he learned growing up in his clan taught him he was as good as dead if he ever ended up in Diabazaal. 

They were at least stuck here until he could shift. Then perhaps he could hide his ears and tail like he did when he first rescued Pidge, unless they could find some other way across.

“I’m also guessing that going around the mountain range isn’t an option?” Pidge asks, drawing a line in the dirt with a stick to show them traveling north. “Or simply climbing one of the mountains?”

Lance snorted. Going around the mountain range would take them _months_ and knowing he was in hostile human territory now he didn’t want to spend even one hour more than necessary. Crossing through the mountain range would prove difficult considering Pidge didn’t have any clothes and neither of them had any kind of equipment to survive the harsh snowy climate. He could probably handle it if he was traveling on his own and stayed in his therion form but it was still dangerous even for him. There was no way he could also keep the princess safe and warm.

“Alright, those options are off the table. What if we snuck into someone’s carriage going through the pass?”

He glared at her, giving her the most deadpan expression a giant feline could make. He chuffed at her as if he were laughing. 

“Okay I know you’re freakishly huge!!” She threw her arms up in the air. “What else am I supposed to suggest, that you _swim_ us across the lake?!” 

His ears flattened even lower and he let out a warning growl.

“Yeah okay, swimming is not going to happen.” She sighed. “Well… how long until you can change back? To your umm… what did you call it… sapien form?”

His ears perked, surprised she remembered the correct term. Humans usually referred to it as their “human” form or even their “deceptive” or “fake” form. All of those descriptors made him feel like an impostor and it was a strange breath of fresh air to have Pidge respect the proper names of his kind. 

“Sorry that wasn’t a yes-no question. One day? Two days. Three days. Four? _Five?”_

He nodded when she said five, that seemed about right. When he wasn’t injured the quickest he could shift back was five days but he reckoned he would need a few more to heal and restore his energy. 

“Oh great… we have to try and stay on the down-low for five more days. Because I was thinking, once you can change back, maybe you can pretend to be human like you did when you rescued me? We can find you some kind of hat and you can hide your tail under your shirt like you did last time.”

He trilled at that, surprised at how easily she thought the same thing. It was the only feasible plan they had at the moment unless they were able to befriend a villager who could help them across the lake or through the pass. Lance was only worried that someone would recognize Pidge as the princess and that would cause them problems. 

But then again she was locked in a tower for several years... maybe no one would recognize her.

“Would resting as much as possible help you shift sooner?” Pidge asked. He offered her a non-commital grunt. What would really help is some healing salve. “We should find a good place to make camp - I think this portion near the lake is good, we’re a safe distance from any of the towns. But there’s got to be some kind of hollow that would be better for you to sleep in.”

Lance stood up onto all fours and moaned for her to follow. They walked around the forest, exploring the area near the lake until they found a space that felt better secluded, surrounded by thick bushes with a giant rock cropping above them so if it rained they had some cover. After they both caught food and ate, Pidge insisted he sleep and she would keep an eye out so he could rest. It was early afternoon but he wouldn’t protest against a coveted nap. He felt bad for being so useless when he was supposed to be the one protecting her and escorting her safely to her destination… but she brought up plenty of good points about how he wouldn’t be able to do any of that in his current state. 

He curled up in the small space and closed his eyes to sleep, willing his body to heal so he could better support the princess. He was supposed to be helping her and yet this whole time it felt like she was helping him. Though she was initially scared and distrusting of him because of what he was, she had a quick transformation to be patient with him and even save him. Now she even listened to him and took his needs into consideration.

He realized that she treated him with _respect._ He wasn’t an ailuran to her but a person who deserved to be treated as such. He felt some of the anxiety leave his chest, replaced by a warmth that could rival a comforting hearth as a pleasant realization entered his mind.

_She's going to change the world. She will be an admirable queen one day._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a shorter chapter but I hope you all enjoy! Let me know what you think!
> 
> EDIT; Retconned the lake from Olkari to Karthuli - I forgot I made Pidge princess of Olkarion in an earlier chapter (I thought I chose Arus but Olkarion makes more sense for her)


End file.
